Recipe: Spinach, Pear and Pomegranate Salad

Here’s a simple, nutritious salad that I came across on the Williams Sonoma blog. The use of pomegranate seeds adds antioxidants to the dish. Spinach always makes a wonderful bed for salads. The sliced pears provide a nice sweet crunch to the salad.

Ingredients (Serves 4):

• 1/3 cup walnut pieces
• 3 Tbs. cider vinegar
• 2 Tbs. extra-virgin olive oil
• 1 Tbs. honey
• 1 tsp. Dijon mustard
• 1/4 tsp. salt
• 1/8 tsp. freshly ground pepper
• 8 oz. baby spinach
• 2 ripe pears, such as Bartlett, cored and sliced
• 1/2 cup pomegranate seeds
• 1/4 cup crumbled blue cheese

Directions:

1. Preheat an oven to 350°F. Spread the walnuts out on a baking sheet and toast in the oven until lightly browned and fragrant, about 10 minutes. Immediately pour onto a plate to cool. Set aside.
2. In a large bowl, whisk together the vinegar, olive oil, honey, mustard, salt and pepper to make a dressing.
3. Add the spinach, pears, pomegranate seeds and walnuts to the bowl and toss gently to mix and coat well. Divide the salad among 4 plates or bowls and top each with about 1 Tbs. blue cheese. Serve immediately.

Adapted from Williams-Sonoma Healthy in a Hurry, by Karen Ansel, MS, RD and Charity Ferreira (Weldon Owen, 2011).

This post is a collaboration with Williams-Sonoma, but all words and opinions are my own.