Pear and Beetroot Winter Salad is the perfect blend of winter fruits and roots, with the crunch of pistachios and creamy blue cheese.
Winter’s Fruits and Roots
The ultimate winter salad of golden beetroots, autumn pears, on a bed of red leaf lettuce with fresh herbs, which grow in cool weather.
Then the addition of Gorgonzola and moon grapes, sprinkled with pistachios, is a celebration of the delicacies that are harvested in autumn and winter months.
Correspondingly, this Winter Fruits and Roots Salad and my Autumn Scallops and Autumn Harvest Salad are my two favorite cool weather salads.
Winter Salad
Cooler weather brings to life those hearty fruits and cool weather vegetables that don’t prefer the heat.
Cabbage, kale, cauliflower, beets and many types of lettuce scream for sunglasses in the dead of summer.
They don’t prefer the heat and would rather hide under an umbrella during the dry heat of summer.
Come Autumn or even winter months, these healthy salad choices simply showoff!
Pears
Ever try to find a ripe pear in July? Exactly!
Pears and apples are in abundance in the cooler months at the end of the year.
A ripe pear, with its delicate flavor, is absolutely scrumptious with sharp cheeses, or vinegar salad dressings.
I love making this salad for holiday celebrations mostly because it is most unexpected.
The colors of pears, both red or green, have the most perfect skin in the cooler months.
Their texture and flavor blend beautifully with a salad of many ingredients.
Beetroots
There is something rather humble about the beet root.
It isn’t the prettiest vegetable at the market, but once they are peeled, sliced and slightly blanched, their color and flavor becomes so vibrant.
You will wonder why you don’t eat them more often.
I have learned that roasted, baked, boiled or juiced, the beet root, both gold and red, is crazy abundant with nutrients.
This is surely something we all need through the cold and flu season of the colder months.
Perhaps that is why they make their appearance at that time of year.
Beetroot Winter Salad
For this winter salad, I chose to roast the golden beets, peel and slice them across this lovely salad of many colors and textures.
I chose the golden beets simply because I didn’t want the red beets to stain the delicate pears.
Easy Salad Dressing
The easiest salad dressing is already in your fridge or pantry: vinegar and olive oil.
Squeeze in some freshly crushed garlic and give it a shake and you have the salad dressing most used all over the Mediterranean.
More Salad Dressings To Love
Can you believe, I’ve never bought a bottle of salad dressing, in my life!
This salad dressing here, gently drizzled over this gorgeous winter salad, is one similar to the salad dressing my mom always made; Mediterranean Lemon Salad Dressing.
She also used it to marinade meats and fish before roasting, or tossed veggies in when cooking; like my Festive Green Bean Bundles.
However, I have taken my mom’s concept of an acidic and an oil/fat, and created several other fabulous salad dressing to love!
- Fresh Strawberry Vinaigrette Salad Dressing – Fresh Strawberry Vinaigrette Salad Dressing, with sweet strawberries, sour balsamic vinegar, olive oil and a bit of red chili flakes for a great dressing.
- Mediterranean Tahini Salad Dressing – Mediterranean Tahini Salad Dressing, with sesame seed paste, known as Tahini, lemons, garlic and good olive oil makes the best dressing and sauce.
- Pomegranate Sumac Vinaigrette – With homemade Pom Molasses, a Mediterranean twist on sweet, sour, spicy tangy flavors that is great for salads or marinades.
- Fig Dressing – with balsamic vinegar, crushed fresh figs a pinch of chili pepper and lots of olive oil.
Colorful Healthy Winter Root Salads
While kale or arugula make for a popular leafy green for a winter salad, I chose the red tip hearty lettuce for this salad since it has a huge water content in it.
I don’t know about you but having the heat on in the winter dries me out, both inside and out, so the hydration of this lettuce was perfect.
Layering wintertime fruits and vegetables on a winter salad isn’t where the deliciousness ends.
Crunch and Cheese To Winter’s Fruits and Roots
Toss those crunchy green pistachios on top.
Sprinkle chunky cheeses such as a blue cheese or a feta.
The saltiness of the cheese blends beautifully with the sweet of the pears and beets.
Don’t forget grapes! Grapes spend all summer growing, only to be harvested at the end of summer when many other fruits have had their turn of attention.
Green, red or black, sliced in half, especially those huge moon grapes, are such a treat on a salad.
This salad is missing only one thing; bread.
For the holidays, this salad is served alongside many of my holiday favorites with a loaf of Beetroot and Spinach yeast bread!
Ingredients
- Red leaf lettuce
- Golden beets
- Red pears
- Green pears
- Grapes
- Gorgonzola
- Pistachios
- Apple cider vinegar
- Olive oil
- Garlic
- Fresh herbs
Equipment
- A long platter
- Sharp slicing knife
- Whisk
- Cutting board
- Oven
Holiday Salad
Not sure why we generally stop thinking about salads once Autumn arrives, but this Autumn and Winter Pear Beet Root Salad is one to remember.
The earthier salad selections, such as beets, on a bed of greens, balanced with perfectly ripe seasonal pears, freshly harvested grapes, the tangy bite of blue cheese and the crunch of pistachios, will make salad in the Autumn or Winter, a new favorite show stopper!
Pear and Beetroot Winter Salad – Winter’s Fruits and Roots
Equipment
- 1 Large Serving Platter
Ingredients
- 2 Golden Beets cooked
- 1 Red Pear finely sliced
- 1 Green Pear finely sliced
- 1 Lemon
- 20 Moon Grapes or any variety washed and cut in half
- 2 tbsp Pistachios
- 6 Kale or Red Top Lettuce washed and thick stems removed
- 1 Garlic clove crushed
- 2 tbsp Olive oil
- 2 tbsp Apple Cider Vinegar
- Salt to taste
- Fresh herbs – Several sprigs, Marjoram Thyme or Oregano
- 2 oz Gorgonzola or Blue Cheese
Instructions
- In a small bowl, whisk the apple cider vinegar, olive oil and garlic. Set aside at room temp.
- Squeeze the lemon juice into a flat bowl. Core and slice the pears 1/4 inch thick (leaving the full shape of the pear exposed), and quick toss those in the lemon juice. Remove with a slotted spoon and set aside.
- Peel the roasted beets, slice about 1/4 inch thick and toss into the lemon juice to retain their color. Remove beets, one at a time, and set on a plate or parchment paper.
- On a large serving platter, arrange leaves of greens down first. Arrange the beets and pears on top of the greens. Sprinkle a bit of salt as you like.
- Place the grapes nicely, sprinkle the pistachios and crumble the cheese on top.
- Gentled cover and set aside until ready to serve. Can be done 30 minutes before.
- Just before serving, drizzle the Salad Dressing across each salad with a spoon.
Video
I believe the table... that place that draws people to gather, is the most powerful symbol of togetherness. All that happens before the table is set, the planning, the gathering, the preparing, are all an intricate part of the dance that create the mood of celebration to share with friends and loved ones.