Fall Fest is virtual event that is the continuation of Summer Fest. Summer Fest is an event that was started by Margaret of Away to Garden and Deb of the Food Network. This week’s theme is Pears. If you would like to join along, please do. Just leave a link to your recipe or fall pear idea below as well as on Margaret’s and Deb’s sites.
This salad is the perfect salad for fall and will ease you into winter. Hearty spinach is tossed together with pears, blue cheese and zesty pecans and cranberries. I have been making this salad all week. In fact, I should probably ease up before we have harvest salad burnout. I really cannot stop as the pears, right now, are amazing! They add such a delicious depth to this salad; crisp, slightly sweet and juicy. Perfect mix with the zesty pecans and cranberries.
What is your favorite way to make a harvest salad?
Recipe: Zesty Pecans and Cranberries
* they make a GREAT snack, too
1/2 cup pecans, broken into pieces
3 tablespoons sugar
2 tablespoons water
zest from one orange
sprinkle of fresh ground black pepper
1/3 cup dried cranberries
Heat oven to 350. Line a cookie sheet with foil. Put the pecans, sugar and water in a medium saucepan. Stirring constantly over low heat, until the sugar is melted and a light syrup is formed. Add the orange and pepper, stir. Cook over low heat until the sugar mixture is absorbed, about 5 minutes; stir very often. Remove from heat and stir in the cranberries. Spread out on the cookie sheet. Bake in the oven, until crispy, about 10 – 15 minutes. Remove. Let cool. You will have enough for a couple salads.
Recipe: Harvest Salad
spinach, enough for 4 people, washed and dried
1 red bartlette pair, sliced
4 oz. blue cheese crumbles
zesty pecans
1/4 cup good olive oil
lemon, juiced
kosher salt, to taste
Put the spinach into a salad bowl. Add the pear, blue cheese and pecans. In a small bowl, whisk together the olive oil, lemon juice and salt. You may need to add a little more olive oil, lemon juice or salt, depending on your taste-buds. Drizzle over salad. Toss. Serve. Eat.
If you enjoyed this fall fest dish, you may enjoy these others as well:
She cooks. He devours. Culinary capers in an urban kitchen in West Oakland. Other half of Chez Us can be found @laudalino on Twitter. 
Denise this is a gorgeous looking salad and perfect for this weather when I don’t necessarily feel like a salad. It’s a lovely segue into the fall and cooler weather…
Denise, I absolutely love this salad, the flavors, the textures. Love the sweet and the salty too. Only one problem with this salad – I wouldn’t be able to stop eating it. And who says that salads aren’t autumn fare. Delicious!
That left photo looks like it’s right out of Saveur. Beautiful! I love pecans and cranberries in salads, and both are the reasons I would eat blue cheese in a salad [since I'm not the biggest fan].
Yumm…I could almost taste this!