Spiced Pear and Goat Cheese Salad
This flavourful spiced pear and goat cheese salad is a feast for the tastebuds! Makes an unforgettable goats cheese starter or a light lunch.
Servings: 6
Calories: 195kcal
Ingredients
- 3 pears cored and quartered
- 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- ½ teaspoon coarsely ground coriander seeds
- ½ teaspoon mixed spice / pumpkin spice
- 2 tablespoon red wine vinegar
- juice of ½ orange
- 6 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
- juice of ½ lemon
- 100 g / 3.5 oz rocket/watercress/spinach leaves
- 150 g / 5.3 oz goat cheese crumbled
- 50 g / ¼ cup Parmesan shaved
- handful of parsley leaves roughly chopped
- 50 g / ¼ cup almond slivers roasted until pale golden brown
- salt and pepper to taste
Instructions
- Preheat a griddle pan and heat your oven to 200 Celsius / 400F.
- Mix the pears in a bowl with a splash of olive oil, salt pepper and dried spices.
- When the griddle is hot, grill the pears for 2 minutes on each side until they caramelise.
- Transfer them to a small roasting tray and pour over the red wine vinegar and orange juice. Roast in the oven for 8 minutes, then transfer into a large bowl and allow to cool.
- Mix the olive oil and lemon juice into the pear juices to make a dressing. Season.
- Mix the leaves with the pear quarters, Parmesan and parsley and pour over the dressing.
- Serve on a large platter and scatter over the roasted almonds (I brown them in a pan without oil on a low heat, but you could also do this in the oven) and the goat cheese.
Notes
10.6g net carbs per 1 serving of 6.
Make sure the pears are soft and ripe! This way their flavour will be the best, and you'll get lots of juice to use in the dressing.
The pears can be served warm or cold, but not so hot that they melt the cheese.
You could replace the goats cheese with another salty cheese. Gorgonzola or roquefort could work well here.
Instead of roasted almonds, you can use roasted walnuts, hazelnuts or pecans. To make this salad nut free, you can also roast sunflower seeds or pumpkin seeds.
Any salad leaves will work for this goats cheese starter. I recently made this with a mix of endive and pea shoots.
Nutrition
Calories: 195kcal | Total Carbohydrates: 14.4g | Protein: 12g | Fat: 13.8g | Fiber: 3.8g | Sugar: 8.1g