Christmas

Roasted Pear and Rainbow Chard Salad

by:
October 21, 2014
4
3 Ratings
Roasted Pear and Rainbow Chard Salad
  • Serves 4
Author Notes

Uncooperative pears are roasted into submission, placed on a bed of tender rainbow chard, and topped with creamy chèvre and a lemony vinaigrette. —Elizabeth Stark

What You'll Need
Ingredients
  • For the vinaigrette:
  • 2 tablespoons freshly squeezed lemon juice
  • 4 teaspoons Champagne vinegar
  • 1 teaspoon Dijon mustard
  • 1 pinch sea salt
  • 1/3 cup extra-virgin olive oil
  • For the salad:
  • 1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil
  • 1 tablespoon Champagne vinegar
  • 4 small, firm pears (I went with a mix of Green Anjou and Bosc here)
  • Sea salt, to taste
  • Black pepper, to taste
  • 1 bunch rainbow chard, stems trimmed and roughly chopped
  • 1/2 cup chèvre
  • 4 lemon wedges, for serving
Directions
  1. For the vinaigrette:
  2. In a small bowl, whisk the lemon juice, vinegar, Dijon, and sea salt to combine. When the mixture is well combined, slowly drizzle in the olive oil, whisking vigorously until vinaigrette is nicely emulsified.
  1. For the salad:
  2. Preheat oven to 375° F. In a small bowl, whisk together the olive oil and Champagne vinegar.
  3. Halve pears and carefully cut out the core. Set pears with sliced side facing up on a rimmed baking sheet. Drizzle olive oil mixture over pears and sprinkle each with sea salt and pepper.
  4. Slide the baking sheet into the oven. Roast for 8 minutes, then use tongs to flip the pears, and return them to the oven for 6 to 8 more minutes, or until the edges are golden and the pears are easily pierced with a fork. Set aside to cool.
  5. In a large bowl, toss the greens with half of the vinaigrette. Crumble in chèvre and toss gently. Divide greens between four plates, add 2 pear halves to each, and drizzle with the remaining dressing. Finish salads with a pinch of sea salt and a liberal sprinkle of black pepper, and garnish with a lemon wedge.
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  • Elizabeth Stark
    Elizabeth Stark
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    rmandell
  • GioFam
    GioFam
  • Nina V
    Nina V
Elizabeth Stark
Elizabeth Stark, along with her husband Brian Campbell, chronicles her passion for simple, fresh recipes on the award-wining food blog Brooklyn Supper.

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10 Reviews

rmandell
rmandell September 29, 2017
I made this recipe for my family. All dubious at first but converted on first bite. I tasted the chard before assembling the salad and thought this would never work because the chard was so bitter. I decided to sauté the stems in some olive oil, and substituted red wine vinegar for the champagne vinegar, and otherwise followed the recipe (oh - omitted the lemon wedges). My family (and I) loved it. My pears took much longer to roast - they must have been very green. The next day I had leftover chard leaves and used sautéed some apples to go on them with the same vinaigrette and goat cheese. Delicious also.
 
GioFam
GioFam September 18, 2017
Omg this was insanely tart. Inedibly tart. My fault for not tasting as I was making it i guess...drizzled honey on after it was plated and that made it more palatable (most vinaigrette have a sweet element right?). Would not make again.
 
Elizabeth S.
Elizabeth S. September 18, 2017
I'm sorry it didn't work out for you, but this is a pretty standard vinaigrette. It has a bit more acid than one typically might, but this is a vinaigrette I enjoy frequently. It is possible you added tablespoons of the Champagne vinegar instead of teaspoons? Champagne vinegar has a subtle sweetness, so if another type of vinegar was used, that could throw things off as well.
 
GioFam
GioFam September 18, 2017
Thanks for the reply, but no, I definitely added teaspoons for the vinegar and it was champagne vinegar (bought it for this recipe). It's odd because I usually love tart and will complain when restaurant vinaigrette is too sweet. My whole family laughed when I said this was supposed to be served with lemon wedges. Again, totally my bad for not tasting along the way. Maybe my lemons were some kind of extra sour variety? Really perplexed... we try new recipes all the time as a family, especially during CSA season. This was clearly a fail on my part.
 
Elizabeth S.
Elizabeth S. September 18, 2017
I hate knowing that the time, effort, and ingredients were wasted. I was checking over the recipe tonight (I wrote it a few years back), and also laughed about the lemon wedges – sounds like you definitely didn't need them tonight! Anyway, thanks for trying it out and leaving the feedback.
 
Nina V.
Nina V. November 8, 2015
I added some toasted hazelnuts to this salad just for a little extra protein crunch and it was quite good!
 
Helenegordon
Helenegordon February 23, 2015
Tried this out on my husband a couple of weeks ago-- we liked it so much that we are going to make it for friends coming for dinner on Thursday.
 
GERRY
GERRY February 15, 2015
Ms. Stark - Thank you for sharing your ROASTED PEAR and CHARD SALAD recipe. It is/was quite splendid and gave some jazz to a dreary and very cold winter evening's meal.
 
Cyndylee1
Cyndylee1 October 23, 2014
Could I grill the pear halfs? Without an oven for next month...thanks!
 
Elizabeth S.
Elizabeth S. October 28, 2014
Hi Cyndylee,
I've never grilled pears, but I imagine they'd be great. From grilling other fruit, I'd suggest putting ripe pears on for a quick stint over high heat, and less ripe ones over indirect heat until tender. Hope that helps, and please report back if you do it!