Spinach and pear salad with peach-lime dressing
Dollops of creamy ricotta on baby spinach and pear makes an unbelievable delicious salad when dressed with my peach lime dressing or an updated blueberry dressing with 4 ingredients!
About 9 years ago, I had eaten a pear salad for the first time in one of the restaurants in US and ever since then making a pear salad has been on my to-do list. My husband and I had enjoyed it so much that we actually had gone behind the doors to talk to the chef about his creation. My recipe is nowhere close to his creation but making it and relishing it took me back in time. My recipe ticks all the essentials of a salad; its creamy, has loads of different texture, quick and best of all healthy especially with my updated 4 ingredient blueberry dressing with no oil or a sweetener.
And here are some substitutions as always:
- In case you can’t find creamy ricotta, use my cheat’s ricotta with paneer.
- No need to rush to a store to get a peach jam either. Strawberry jam or apricot jam or an orange marmalade would work brilliantly with the dressing.
- Update: I recently did a short video on my Instagram and Facebook account #acookwithin with a 4 ingredient blueberry dressing with no oil or a sweetener and it got a great response! I love to play around with the recipe so using the same ingredients, I made a super quick blueberry dressing that I have also updated in the notes below for a quick reference.
- Walnuts, pecans, pumpkin seeds is also a great substitute for sunflower seeds.
If you liked this recipe, you might want to have a look at some of these other ones too:
Recipe Card
Spinach and pear salad with peach-lime dressing
Recipe Rating
AUTHOR
Hema B Kathrani
CUISINE
International
PREP TIME
10 mins
COOK TIME
0 mins
SERVINGS
serves 2
Author: Hema B Kathrani | Cuisine: International | Category: Healthy Options
Prep Time: 10 mins | Cook Time: 0 mins | Servings: serves 2
Dollops of creamy ricotta on baby spinach and pear makes an unbelievable delicious salad when dressed with my peach lime dressing or an updated blueberry dressing with 4 ingredients!
Ingredients
- 2 cups baby spinach
- 2 large ripe pear
- 1 big red chili (chili pepper) sliced
- 4 tbsp ricotta cheese (or more as you prefer)
- 3 tbsp toasted sunflower seeds
- For the dressing: *optional blueberry dressing in notes
- 2 tbsp peach jam
- 1 tbsp lemon juice
- 1 tsp lemon zest
- 1 tbsp green onion finely chopped
- 1 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
- Salt and pepper to taste
Method
- Make the dressing:
- In a bowl, mix all the ingredients listed under dressing and combine.
- Adjust the seasoning.
- In a large bowl, place baby spinach and top it with slices of pear and chili pepper.
- With a spoon, put dollops of ricotta over the spinach and pear salad.
- Sprinkle toasted sunflower seeds.
- Just before serving, drizzle half the dressing over the salad. Toss well and serve immediately.
Notes
- Use fresh, tender baby spinach for the salad.
- Choose a pear which is ripe and has a bite to it. Overripe, soft pear won’t do justice to the texture in the salad.
- I would strongly recommend toasting the seeds/nuts before using it in any salad. The aroma and the taste of the freshly toasted seeds and nuts is unbeatable.
- Use the amount of dressing as per your preference.
- Update: If you have been with me on Instagram/Facebook, you may have seen this same salad with a super simple and healthy blueberry dressing I had put it up for a quick reference. I love to play around with the ingredients and turn the same recipe around. So using the same ingredients of salad, I made a different 4 ingredient dressing, not counting salt and pepper. Blend 1/4 cup fresh blueberries (if using frozen, thaw it before using or if using straight away then add 1 tbsp of water) with 1 small clove garlic, 1 green chili, 1 tsp lemon juice along with salt and pepper. Dress it over the salad as written in the method above.
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