Apple-Pear Salad with Lemon Poppy Seed Dressing

A reader wrote to me a few days ago and asked about recipes with pears. I have to admit, she caught me unprepared (oh, dear, the pun of it all–unprepeared! Sorry, couldn’t help myself.) Coincidentally, though, I had recently been thinking about doing some recipes with pears; I just hadn’t gotten around to it. You know how that goes; you think about doing something, but then something else happens and then something else happens and then something else happens. Before you know it, the original thought meanders its way into that shadowy part of your brain where things are either comletely forgotten or turn into a vague nagging feeling that there was something you meant to do.

When I got the pear e-mail, that nagging pear thought came roaring back to the still mostly functional part of my brain at which time I said, “Dang it! I ought to have done those pear recipes two weeks ago when I first thought about them.” Sheesh, I’m eloquent when I talk to myself.

This salad is a lovely twist on the old strawberry-spinach-salad-with-poppy-seed-dressing recipes that have been around for the last eleventy eleven years. I really enjoyed this new salad and my body thanked me for feeding it something healthy. I have been really bad lately with the caramel butter sauce and a spoon.

The recipe for the lemon poppy seed dressing is very good, one of the best that I have had. It is definitely on my keeper list.

Apple-Pear Salad
Adapted from Allrecipes
Printable Recipe

1 bag baby spinach leaves
1 apple, cored and diced
1 pear, cored and diced
1 cup cashews
1/4 cup dried cranberries
4 oz. swiss cheese, shredded or cut into small, thin strips (I had some baby swiss cheese sandwich slices that I cut thinly)

Toss all ingredients together. Serve with poppy seed dressing on the side.

Lemon Poppy Seed Dressing

1/2 cup white sugar
1/2 cup lemon juice
2 teaspoons diced onion (I used a purple onion; it added a faint pinkish color to the dressing.)
1 teaspoon Dijon-style prepared mustard
1/2 teaspoon salt
2/3 cup vegetable oil
1 tablespoon poppy seeds

In a blender or food processor, combine sugar, lemon juice, onion, mustard, and salt. Process until well blended. With machine still running, add oil in a slow, steady stream until mixture is thick and smooth. Add poppy seeds, and process just a few seconds more to mix.

Comments

nabeela82 says:

September 18, 2010 at 12:41

How much of the poppy seed dressing is made? Is it all meant to be used in the 1 salad or is there a lot more?

Terri says:

September 18, 2010 at 19:12

The recipe makes approximately 2 cups of dressing. I let each person serve themselves. The original poster of this salad on allrecipes tossed the dressing with the salad.