ENDIVE & PEAR SALAD

One of the things I love about salads is that there's no rule, no right way, no wrong way, no perfect way - to make them. You can throw a bunch of vegetables cooked in a multitude of ways into a salad, or simply chop up some fresh lettuce. Dressing combinations are endless, and so are the toppings. Thus, one of my favorite ways to make a salad is buy opening my refidgerator and using whatever I have inside.

Pears are a pretty popular fruit to add to salads, but being that they take forever to ripe, and once to ripe, they rot and they're gross, I decided to roast the pears for a few minutes. I had a bunch of beautiful endive in the fridge over the weekend, so I quickly thought to use that as a base for the salad without adding any other lettuce. I toasted some walnuts with spices, chopped some cilantro, made a lemony dressing, and had a perfectly healthy and delicious dinner with my husband. 

Husband approved.

Ingredients:

3 endives

2 small ripe pears, chopped

10 walnuts, chopped

Bunch of cilantro

Juice of 2 lemons

1 tbsp extra virgin olive oil

Pinch of sea salt

Spice mixture for the walnuts:

1 tsp paprika

1 tsp turmeric

1 tsp cumin

1 tsp cayenne

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 350F. Place the pears inside for about 15 minutes and remove. Chop the endives, pears and walnuts. 

Place walnuts in a pan over medium high heat and coat with the spice mixtures. Continuously mix for about 5 minutes until they are slightly brown. Chop the cilantro and set aside.

Add all of the ingredients to a serving bowl and top with lemon juice, olive oil and sea salt.