Pear, roasted Beet and Blue Cheese Salad

A few years ago I had a salad in some restaurant that I have long since forgotten.  I thought it was delicious and so I came home and created this recipe.  I made it tonight and enjoyed in once again.  It isn't the kind of salad that you would want for an entire dinner but it is really good as a first course or side salad.  The first few times I made it, I roasted the beets and made the honey mustard dressing from scratch, but since then I have discovered that Costco has roasted whole beets in a shrink-wrap container, that are as good as any you can roast yourself .  I also now use over the counter honey mustard dressing.  I like Cardini's.  If you don't have a Costco nearby, almost any cookbook will tell you how to roast beets.  It isn't hard to do, but getting the skin off is a little messy and I recommend wearing rubber gloves or you will have red stains all over your hands.  And If you decide to make your own honey mustard dressing, I like the recipe in the good old Betty Crocker cookbook.  Here is what the salad looks like: (click on the picture and you will get a larger version)

It is very simple to make, especially if you can find the pre-roasted beets.  Give it a try.

Ingredients for four:

2 cups Spring Greens
2-3 Whole roasted beets - rolled on paper towel to absorb liquid and diced into a 3/8" dice
2 Pears - peeled, quartered and cut into 3/8" dice
Small Piece Maytag or other similar Blue Cheese - cut into 1/2" dice
Candied Walnuts (available in most grocery stores)
Cardini's Honey Mustard Dressing

Preparation:

Distribute a thin layer of greens on each of four salad plates.  Starting on one side of the plate mound a few pieces of diced beet.  Next mound a few pieces of diced pear adjacent to the beets.  Now add a few cubes of the Blue Cheese.  Starting from the other side of the plate, mound another few pieces of beet and then pear, so that you meet at the blue cheese in the middle of the plate. Sprinkle with some of the candied walnuts.   Drizzle with the Honey Mustard dressing and you are done.  The result is unique, beautiful and tasty.  I had a glass of buttery chardonnay with the salad and it went together nicely.  Enjoy !!