Impress your dinner guests with this amazing Vertical Pear Blue Cheese Salad! It’s so easy to make and incredibly delicious.
Love the pear and blue cheese combo? Be sure to try this easy recipe for Pear, Blue Cheese & Walnut Flatbread.
Vertical Pear Blue Cheese Salad
Slice a pear into three slices as seen above and fill with salad.
This Salad Appetizer Is Easily Customizable
Swap the salad recipe to feature any cheese or nuts you prefer. Other great options would be goat cheese and walnuts.
Yield: 1 Pear
Pear Blue Cheese Salad
This layered-pear blue cheese salad recipe with fresh watercress, toasty pecans, and tangy vinaigrette is an impressive but effortless side.
Ingredients
- 4 smooth skinned pears
- 2-3 cups watercress
- ½ cup toasted pecans
- ¼ cup crumbled blue cheese
- vinaigrette dressing
- honey for drizzling
- lemon juice
Instructions
- Cut pears horizontally into 3 or 4 slices depending on the size of your pears. Use a paring knife to cut out the cores. The pieces should look like O's. Leave the stem on the pop piece. Brush slices of pear with lemon juice to keep it from browning.
- Toss watercress, pecans, and blue cheese with dressing until coated.
- Reassemble the pear, vertically, with the watercress salad in between each slice. Once assembled, drizzle with honey, and serve!
Notes
Storage Instructions
- Fridge: Store the sliced pear and the watercress in separate containers. The pear can be stored for up to 5 days, the watercress for 3 days, and the rest of the mixture for up to a week.
Nutrition
Serving: 1, Calories: 260kcal, Carbohydrates: 35g, Protein: 5g, Fat: 14g, Saturated Fat: 3g, Polyunsaturated Fat: 10g, Cholesterol: 6mg, Sodium: 193mg, Fiber: 7g, Sugar: 23g
Categories:
Post may contain affiliate links. Read my disclosure policy.
This looks nice. I am always trying to find something unique to surprise my wife when I fix dinners for her or for special occasions. I try this soon. Thanks for the idea.
Just came across this on Pinterest, it looks fabulous and I’m definitely going to try this. It being Christmas time and all I may even find a partridge for my “Pear Tree”.
Do you think feta would be an appropriate substitute?
I may try it. This looks so wonderful as it is to me. But I have people who don’t like bleu cheese.
What is the ‘re old for the dressing
Dressing recipe? How to make
Can you warm up the pears right before assembling it?
so beautiful. it’s a must!
I love the presentation but this salad is getting the Mason jar treatment so I can take it for lunch! Thank you.
This is truely amazing! But all I am asking myself at the moment is: how the hell are you going to eat that without making a mess? :)
And gosh, can I relate to your story. But actually my parents told me Mia (a hairy, crazy terrier dog) is not sister, rtaher she’s there to replace me after I left home. And that’s what she does. She took over my FAVORITE armchair which I have been watching TV in for about the first 18 years of my life …
I cannot wait until I can volunteer to make the salad at our next dinner party. This is a show stopper.
This is the cutest salad I’ve ever seen! I shared this recipe on my latest meal plan, thank you!
What a great idea! Very creative way to eat a salad!
Great salad. I made one just like it last fall and everyone raved!
Yvonne
My jaw literally dropped when I saw the first picture-BEAUTIFUL! Food art. :)
This is amazing!! Love the sweet savory combo and the vertical thing is something I must try!
this is wonderful, extraordinary and looks very refreshing and appetizing! unfortunately, pears are not grown here in our place (Philippines). Nonetheless, will definitely try this. thanks for the recipe! cheers! :-)
that looks truly awesome!!
This look so classy! Can I substitute goat cheese for blue cheese?
Of course!
I read this a while back and my girlfriend and I did something inspired by your post. We did it with spinach and toasted pine nuts. We also skipped the honey and used orange juice instead do lemon juice (we had extra). Finally, we used toothpicks to hold it together (but told the people eating it so they knew the expect a toothpick or two).
You can read all about it on my cooking notebook/blog at http://kitchenkatalog.com/?id=618
This recipe look divine and I can’t wait to try it! I featured it here. YUM and so pretty!
This is one of the prettiest presentations for a salad that I’ve ever seen. It is literally mouthwatering!
Funny story. Brothers like that are pesky little dibba dobba’s huh. The pear salad on the other hand is awesome, looks a stunner, great stuff :)
Wow, this salad looks fantastic and the presentation is to die for!!!
love the presentation of that salad!!
I absolutely adore this salad! It has such a gorgeous presentation. It would be PERFECT to serve at a dinner party IN MY NEW HOUSE! (Which I don’t own yet…. But I will soon!)
Oh my. How awesome is this salad? I’ve done the pear/pecan/watercress/blue cheese combination in salads on a regular basis, but never in a million years did it occur to me to change it up with an awesome presentation like this. Talk about a show-stopper!
Good luck with the challenge. You’ve totally got my vote.
I can completely understand the dog thing. My mother in law has Oscar’s brother living with her!! Although he has never drawn blood, he hates me, too. (Of course, I don’t think too much of him either).
The salad is gorgeous. I love the presentation.
What a fun salad!! Looks super fancy!
Wow! This looks like a fantastic meal, and I like the pairing of the pumpkin ale instead of another wine. I made up my own menu to keep it simple, but I’m looking around and thinking I may have done my last round! :) Good luck, though I don’t think you’ll need it.
That Pear salad looks fantastic. Great picture too. Good luck in this round. You got my vote.
What a cute story and what a STUNNING salad. You have my vote on this post alone. You should sell this at a restaurant…or enter it in a salad competition. Just too beautiful! And I’m sure delicious tasting too!
This is such a gorgeous presentation! Definitely restaurant-worthy.
Cute story! Possibly not-so-cute dog for running off like that though. I can’t get over how beautiful this pear salad looks. It belongs on the cover of a magazine!
Agree!! It should be in the cover of a magazine or a tv commercial. NicelNicely done. Let’s hope mine comes out just like this one.
Such a beautiful picture. I feel like I can reach out and take a bite. Beautiful! You should be proud. :)
I’m going to have to steal this!
Good luck w/ the canine brother. I’ve got a canine and feline sisters who don’t like me or my little dog.
Oh my gosh, this is marvelous! What a fun way to welcome the fall season… I bet this tastes even more wonderful than it looks! I had a good laugh over your story about the mini Schnauzer, too. Thanks for sharing, Jess!
WOW – this seriously looks like a work of art. I wouldn’t want to eat it if I had it in front of me. I would just want to stare at it.
This is so so pretty – I’m definetly going to have to be a copy cat! I might wait until comice pears start showing up at the markets – they are my favorite :)
Gorrrrgeous!!! As soon as I saw the title of this post in my RSS feed, I knew it was gonna be good!