Winter Pear Salad with Roasted Pear Vinaigrette

Nearly every pear salad out there gets dressed with balsamic. This winter pear salad puts a roasted pear right in the vinaigrette instead. The dressing comes out creamy and a little sweet, sharpened with orange and shallot. Underneath: crisp greens, more fresh pear, pomegranate, maple-toasted walnuts and crumbled cashew cheese.

I layer the same roasted pear vinaigrette into a Mason Jar Salad for lunches, and any pears too soft for slicing go into a Pear Smoothie the next morning. Want a nudge to eat more salads this season? My 10-Day Salad Challenge will get you there.

Why You’ll Love It

• Pear in the dressing, not just on the plate. One roasted pear blended with olive oil, orange juice and white wine vinegar makes a vinaigrette that’s creamy and fruit-forward. No dairy, no mustard.
• Fresh pomegranate instead of dried cranberries. Same jewel-red pop, no added sugar.
• Dairy-free without tasting like a compromise. Crumbled Miyoko’s cashew cheese stands in for goat cheese or gorgonzola. As written, this winter pear salad is vegan, gluten-free and dairy-free.
• Five teaspoons of maple syrup for the whole recipe. Two in the dressing, a tablespoon on the walnuts, across four servings. Every other bit of sweetness is fruit.

Winter Pear Salad Ingredients

The full list is in the recipe card below. These are the ones that matter most.

• Pears: three total. Two get sliced for the salad (Bosc holds its slices best). One gets roasted for the dressing (a ripe Bartlett is ideal).
• Pomegranate arils: buy them pre-seeded if you’re short on time. Nobody will know.
• Miyoko’s cashew cheese: my favorite plant-based cheese, made from cultured cashews. Any of their wheels crumbles well. A savory, herby one plays best against the pear.
• Maple-toasted walnuts: 1 cup raw walnuts, 1 tablespoon pure maple syrup and 1 teaspoon unrefined coconut oil. They taste candied without a candy-coating’s worth of sugar.
• Roasted pear vinaigrette: the roasted pear gets blended with olive oil, fresh orange juice, white wine vinegar, garlic, shallot and 2 teaspoons of maple syrup. A drizzle of unrefined coconut oil, one of the fats I cook with most, helps the pear caramelize. White wine vinegar instead of balsamic keeps it bright, so the pear comes through.

How to Make Winter Pear Salad

1. Roast the pear. Preheat the oven to 425°F. Set the halved pear cut-side up on a baking sheet and drizzle with 1 teaspoon coconut oil. Roast 10 to 15 minutes, until fork-tender. Set aside to cool (10 minutes in the fridge if you’re in a hurry).
2. Toast the walnuts. Same oven, same temperature. Toss the walnuts with the maple syrup and 1 teaspoon coconut oil. Spread on a baking sheet and toast 3 to 5 minutes. Watch them. They go from golden to burnt in about thirty seconds. Cool on the pan.
3. Blend the dressing. Add the cooled pear, olive oil, orange juice, vinegar, garlic, shallot, maple syrup, salt and pepper to a blender. Blend until smooth and creamy. Taste and adjust salt. An immersion blender in a jar handles this small batch beautifully, or use your high-speed blender.
4. Slice and assemble. Slice the two fresh pears thin and toss with a squeeze of orange juice so they stay pale. Layer the greens, pears, red onion, walnuts, cheese and pomegranate on a platter. Dress right before serving.

Make-Ahead, Storage and Freezing

• Dressing: up to 3 days ahead in a lidded glass jar in the fridge. Olive oil firms up when cold, so pull it out 15 minutes before serving and shake hard.
• Walnuts: up to a week ahead, airtight at room temperature.
• Pomegranate arils: up to 5 days ahead, airtight in the fridge.
• Pears: slice the day of. If you must slice early, toss with orange or lemon juice and refrigerate sealed.
• Traveling: greens in one container, toppings in another, dressing in the jar. Assemble on-site in five minutes.
• Leftovers: dressed salad keeps about 24 hours. The greens soften, but it’s still good for lunch.
• Freezing: the vinaigrette freezes up to 3 months in 2-tablespoon freezer cubes. Thaw in the fridge and shake or re-blend. The salad itself doesn’t freeze.

More Salads Worth Bringing

Love winter salads? Me too. Try these ones next:

• Marinated Celery Salad: crunchy, tangy and built to make ahead. My current favorite for potlucks.
• Fall Harvest Salad: roasted squash, candied pecans and the same bring-it-anywhere energy. It’s on our table the same week as this one.
• Kale Caesar Salad: a dairy-free caesar with garlic lemon aioli. Hearty enough to hold its own on a holiday spread.
• Autumn Mason Jar Salad: butternut squash and quinoa layered in a jar. I use the roasted pear vinaigrette in it for lunches.
• Lemon Arugula Salad: peppery, bright and fast. No oven required.