Serves 4
Serve this salad as a first course or expand the amounts by 50 percent and use it as the centerpiece of a luncheon menu.
- ¼ cup nonfat yogurt
- 1/3 cup crumbled blue cheese
- 1 teaspoon Dijon mustard
- ½ teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
- 2 teaspoons white wine vinegar
- ¼ teaspoon curry powder
- 3 tablespoons minced chives
- 1 teaspoon honey
- Salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste
- 4 large handfuls of mixed salad greens: lettuces, spinach, endive and radicchio
- 1 tablespoon lemon juice
- 4 tablespoons water
- 2 ripe medium Comice or Bartlett pears
- 8 thin triangular slices blue cheese
- Chive leaves and blossoms for garnish
- In a small bowl, place the yogurt, blue cheese, mustard, Worcestershire sauce, vinegar, curry powder, minced chives and honey. Stir gently to combine the ingredients. Adjust the seasonings with salt and pepper. Cover the bowl and refrigerate until ready to serve.
- Just before serving, set out four large salad plates. Place a handful of greens on each plate. Place the lemon juice and water in a small bowl. Halve each pear vertically, core it, and cut each half into 1/3 to ½-inch slices. Dip the slices in the lemon water to prevent browning. Drain and arrange four to six pear slices on top of the greens. Place two slices of blue cheese on the side of each plate. Garnish with the chives. Pass the dressing at the table.
Rosalind Creasy is an herb gardener and landscape designer in Los Altos, California, and the author of many books. Her most recent is Herbs: A Country Garden Cookbook, written with Carole Saville.
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