Spinach Salad with Apples, Pears, and Pecans

By on 31 October 2010 in Salads with 10 Comments.

Salads are a staple in our house. We find them especially good for serving to guests to round out a meal. However, I tend to fall into the trap of thinking the salad is the “easy” part and save it until the last minute…at which point I realize it has a lot more prep work than I realized!

While I love salads with many ingredients, usually I like something simple to put together so that I can concentrate on preparing the main dish. This salad fits the bill as fancy enough to serve to guests, but simple enough to put together in a reasonable amount of time. The idea came from my mother (thanks, Mom!), who is the queen of simple entertaining. She served hers with candied pecans, which I think would be a great touch (we didn’t happen to have any on hand so we made do with plain). It was a great combination of fall flavors!

Spinach Salad with Apples, Pears, and Pecans

Serves 4

What You Need
One apple
One pear
6 cups spinach
3 tablespoons pecans, candied if desired
3 tablespoons elderberry jelly (or other berry variety)
3 tablespoons sherry vinegar
3 tablespoons grape seed oil (other other neutral oil)
Kosher salt
Pepper

1  Wash the spinach leaves and dry them in a salad spinner.

2  Core the apple and pear and cut them into thin slices.

3  In a microwaveable dish, microwave the 3 tablespoons jelly for a few seconds, until melted. Whisk together with 3 tablespoons sherry vinegar and 3 tablespoons grape seed oil. Add some salt and pepper to taste.

4 Place spinach leaves on plates and top with slices of apples and pears. Pour over the dressing, and top with pecans.

Print Friendly

Tags: , , , , , , , , ,