Caramelized Pear Salad with Walnuts and Brie

Caramelized Pear Salad with Walnuts and Brie

4 servings

Ingredients:

3-4 tablespoons butter
3 tablespoons white wine vinegar
1 tablespoon brown sugar
2 firm pears, quartered and cored
1/2 cup walnuts
1 bag (about 5 ounces) arugula leaves, spring or field greens
About 4 to 5 ounces Brie, Camembert, or soft blue cheese, sliced

Place butter, vinegar and sugar in a frying pan over medium heat. Add the pear and walnuts and cook for 4 minutes or until the pear is just soft.

Place the arugula or field greens on serving plates and top with the pear and walnuts. Spoon over the pan juices and top with the cheese.

Recipe adapted from Donna Hay

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Stacked Pear Salads

Stacked Pear Salads

4 servings (recipe can easily be halved or doubled)

4 smooth skinned pears

2 to 3 cups water cress, baby field lettuce, arugula or baby spinach
1/2 cup toasted pecans, walnuts, or hazelnuts
1/4 cup crumbled blue cheese, or feta (I used reduced calorie feta)
simple vinagrette dressing (for this recipe skip the garlic if you usually use it. I used a commercial reduced calorie raspberry vinaigrette from the bottle.

honey (or agave syrup)

lemon juice

-Cut pears horizontally into three or four slices each. Use a knife to core the center pieces (they will resemble dougnuts.) Leave the stem on. Brush lemon juice on each cut side of the slices to prevent browning.

In a medium size bowl, toss the pecans, blue cheese, water cress (or tender greens of your choice) with the dressing until well coated.

Reassemble the pear, vertically, with the salad mixture between each slice. When assembled drizzle entire pear with honey; I used agave syrup instead of the honey ~ it measures more favorably on the Glucose Index than honey.

These are best made just shortly before serving. I hope you enjoy!

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