Pear and Goat Cheese Salad with Brown Butter Vinaigrette
 
Prep time
Cook time
Total time
 
This salad is a spectacular addition to your fall table. It’s a great candidate for salad for dinner especially if topped with leftover cold chicken. It will also make a fabulous Thanksgiving salad. I’m serving this at a fancy dinner party I’m doing in Chicago next month. Honestly how can you say no to brown butter- and since it’s on salad it’s practically health food, right?
Author:
Recipe type: Salad
Cuisine: American, New
Serves: 6 servings
Ingredients
  • Pear and Goat Cheese Salad with Pickled Onions and Brown Butter Vinaigrette
  • 1 red onion, thinly sliced
  • 1 cup red wine vinegar
  • ½ cup water
  • ¼ cup packed dark muscavado sugar or dark brown sugar http://amzn.to/1P0BKsu
  • ½ teaspoon sea salt
  • 2 tablespoons Gourmet Garden lightly dried parsley
  • 2 tablespoons Gourmet Garden lightly dried chili
  • 2 pears, sliced into wedges
  • 4 cups mixed greens
  • 2 cups chopped radicchio (you can substitute with two more cups of salad greens/bitter greens)
  • 4 oz fresh goat cheese (chevre)
  • ¼ cup toasted hazelnuts (optional)
  • Brown Butter Vinaigrette
  • 3.5 tablespoons brown butter (½ tablespoon reserved for pears)
  • 1 tablespoon room temperature water
  • 1 tablespoon red wine vinegar
  • ¼ teaspoon sea salt
Instructions
  1. 1. Make Pickled Onions
  2. Place sliced onions in a large, non-reactive bowl. In a medium sauce pan, bring red wine vinegar, water, sugar, sea salt, and Gourmet Garden lightly dried herbs to a boil. Pour over thinly sliced red onions and rest for at least 20 minutes and then transfer to a zip top bag and push all of the air out. Marinate for at least 1 hour before serving.
  3. 2. Make Brown Butter:
  4. Add 3.5 tablespoons of butter to a heavy stainless steel skillet over medium heat. It will bubble and spit, and make lots of noise. Don’t be afraid, but do be patient. Eventually, your butter will turn light golden brown, and then voila, dark amber, nutty brown. That’s right where you want it. Immediately pour it out of the pan leaving about a half tablespoon of brown butter in the pan so you can sauté those pears.
  5. 3. Sautée Pears:
  6. Add sliced pears to the pan where you made the brown butter, and gently sauté over medium heat until pears take on a bit of color and soften a bit (about 3 minutes) Flip to the second side to finish.
  7. 4. Make Brown Butter Vinaigrette:
  8. Whisk 3 tablespoons warm brown butter with water, red wine, and sea salt. If the dressing sits out for about an hour, it will starts to solidify. To liquify again, whisk it over a bowl of very hot water.
  9. 5. Assemble Salad:
  10. Layer lettuces with brown butter pears, pickled onion, toasted hazelnuts, and crumbled chèvre. Drizzle the salad with brown butter vinaigrette and serve immediately.
Recipe by The Tomato Tart at https://www.thetomatotart.com/recipe/salad-recipe/salad-brown-butter-vinaigrette/