Hearty radicchio and pear salad with blue cheese
A good salad needs more than just green leaves and a light dressing. It thrives on exciting contrasts and a thoughtful combination of ingredients. This is precisely where our radicchio and pear salad with blue cheese comes in.
- 1 small radicchio
- 1 ripe pear
- 2 tablespoons of lemon juice (plus a little more for the pear)
- 40 g walnuts
- 3 tablespoons olive oil
- 1 TL Honig
- Salt and pepper (to taste)
- 50 g blue cheese
- Wash the radicchio, remove the core and tear the leaves into bite-sized pieces.
- Wash the pear and cut it into thin wedges. Drizzle it with a little lemon juice.
- Roughly chop the walnuts and roast them in a pan without fat until they are golden brown and fragrant.
- In a bowl, mix the remaining lemon juice with olive oil, honey, salt and pepper, and stir all the ingredients together well.
- Place the radicchio in a bowl. Arrange the pear wedges on top, crumble the cheese, and sprinkle it over the salad along with the walnut kernels. Finally, drizzle the dressing over everything and toss well. Serve the salad with fresh bread.
15-minute recipe: Radicchio and pear salad with blue cheese
Especially on busy workdays, there's often no time for elaborate cooking. Nevertheless, lunch should be satisfying and delicious. This radicchio and pear salad with blue cheese is perfect for just such moments. Preparation takes hardly any time and requires no complicated steps. You simply wash the lettuce, chop the fruit, and briefly toast the nuts. Because radicchio has a very firm texture, it doesn't wilt immediately like more delicate leafy greens. This makes it an ideal choice for a simple lunch that you can also easily prepare in advance and enjoy later.
The base is radicchio. This typical Italian leafy green naturally has a distinct bitter note. To soften this somewhat, it's best to completely remove the light-colored core. It contains most of the bitter compounds and is also quite tough. Then cut the leaves into bite-sized strips. Quarter the pear, remove the core, and cut it into thin wedges. The walnuts develop their full aroma best when you toast them in a dry pan until they are lightly fragrant. Then let them cool briefly and add them, along with the coarsely crumbled blue cheese, to the other ingredients in a large bowl.
A robust salad calls for a well-balanced dressing. Since the blue cheese already contains plenty of fat and flavor, a simple vinaigrette is perfectly sufficient. Whisk together good olive oil with freshly squeezed lemon juice and season the mixture with salt and pepper. A spoonful of honey is the key ingredient here. Its sweetness provides the perfect counterpoint to the bitter leaves and blends harmoniously with the fruitiness of the pear. Pour the dressing over the salad just before serving and gently toss everything together so that the pear wedges remain intact and the cheese is evenly distributed.
Tip: If blue cheese is too strong for you, the recipe can easily be adapted. A mild goat's cheese adds a subtle acidity and makes the whole thing a bit creamier. Crumbled feta also works wonderfully and provides the necessary salty component to balance the sweet fruit.
