Caramelized Pear & Blue Cheese Salad

Estimated reading time: 6 minutes

 

Caramelized; is a word you see often in my recipes, because honestly…everything is better when caramelized. Trust me, just like this caramelized pear salad.

What does it mean to caramelize?

When you caramelize something, essentially you a doing a cooking process when you release the natural sugars in food; for example, onions. When you cook a certain food at a steady temperature for a certain amount of time, its natural sugars are released and they start to turn sweet, nutty and brown. Usually, this is done with the low and slow methods (which is when you cook something at a low temperature for a longer period).

Can you caramelize anything?

My favourite foods to caramelize are the ones that contain natural sugars already, but you can pretty much caramelize anything by using a little additional sugar, brown sugar, molasses, maple syrup or salt. Some of my favourite ingredients to caramelize naturally are pears, apples, bananas (yes bananas; on ice cream…so good), onions, garlic, leeks, green onions, sweet potatoes and carrots.

If you would like to try a few different caramelized recipes, these are a few of my favourites:

Caramelized Garlic Butter: This is one of my favourite condiments to make, especially in the winter. It’s so good that I’ll just eat it on a fresh piece of bread. This garlic butter is also great to elevate a sandwich, add on top of a steak or cook shrimp in. The garlic is cooked at a low temperature in butter for about 45 minutes. You then need to let it cool in the fridge to harden before using. You can find the easy directions here.

Caramelized Onion & Cheddar Scones: I love scones! They are the perfect breakfast, brunch item or even a mid-day snack. I’ll even have a warmed scone for lunch with a little rocket salad. In this recipe, I used some caramelized onions to add some depth in flavour. It worked perfectly with the sharp cheddar for a savoury scone. You can find the step by step for the scones here.

Roasted Apples on Ice Cream: This is the perfect example of how you can work caramelized foods into a dessert. These caramelized apples are so simple to make and on top of ice cream? I mean come on….so good. The best part is how quickly it all comes together and it makes for the perfect weeknight dessert. While we could caramelize the apples using their natural sugars for this recipe, in order to quicken up the process I decided to use maple syrup. That way it speeds up the caramelizing process a lot quicker. You can find that recipe here!

The Best Caramelized Pear Salad

Alright, let’s get to the recipe. This is one of my favourite easy green salad recipes. The flavour combinations work perfectly together. It’s perfect for a perfect side salad, and an easy dinner, I even had some for lunch today with a homemade dressing.

If you want a more filling salad, you can turn this into a grilled chicken salad. Simply by adding a few slices of cooked chicken breast.

How to make the sautéed caramelized pears…

While this might look like a fancy salad, it’s so easy and it comes together in just a few minutes. All you have to do is cut your pear wedges, cook them on each side in a griddle pan or medium skillet for 3-4 minutes on medium heat until they turn golden. Then you’ll throw in some sliced onion to the frying pan, cook a little more and then add in a drizzle of maple syrup. Let that cook down for another three to four minutes and you are set!

If you don’t have or like maple syrup, you can use honey. This salad is just as delicious as caramelized pears with honey.

What else goes into the caramelized pear salad?

The perfect topping for this salad was a little crumbled blue cheese! I love the kick blue cheese crumbles give to a dish. I understand that blue cheese isn’t one of the most loved cheeses, so you can substitute blue cheese for feta or goat cheese crumbles for this healthy recipe.

I wanted to add a little crunch, so I tossed in a handful of my Candied Chickpeas and it was so perfect. You can find the recipe for those here. You can also substitute for a half cup of walnuts, pine nuts or candied pecans.

I wanted a low-carb salad dressing so I used a simple olive oil and lemon juice vinaigrette with a little lemon zest. It was just perfect to balance out the strong flavours in this salad.

A Lemon and Basil Vinaigrette would be a great option too, you can find that recipe here. Another great option would be a Honey Mustard Vinaigrette that I used for a Winter Citrus Salad. The recipe for that vinaigrette can be found at the bottom of that post, here!

To assemble this salad, toss your greens with a small amount of the vinaigrette of your choice in a large salad bowl or large platter. Add the pear slices and onion mixture on top. Sprinkle a little soft blue cheese and serve.

This recipe makes 2 main salads.

Ingredients

• pears, about 2 large ones

• butter

• salt

• honey

• red onion

• Greens of your choice: baby arugula, romaine lettuce, red leaf lettuce,

• homemade salad dressing of your choice

How to make this Caramelized Pear and Blue Cheese Salad

Start by cutting your pears into wedges and removing any seeds from the core and discarding the stem end. In a large pan, melt your two tablespoons of butter on medium-high heat and add the pear in a single layer. Cook each side for about three to five minutes or until you start to see the edges turn golden. Once you see some colour, turn the pears over and repeat for the other side, for about an additional 3 minutes. Reduce the heat a little and throw in your sliced onion, a drizzle of honey, a pinch of kosher salt and a few cracks of fresh black pepper. Here you’ll have to stir a little and let caramelize for another three minutes until the onions soften and get a little colour.

Then all you have to do is remove it from heat and allow it to cool slightly. It’s time to assemble the salad!

Toss your greens with the vinaigrette of your choice, and add the pear and onion mixture on top. Sprinkle a little blue cheese and serve!