The best bit about salads is the tasty bits and although the leaves play a significant part, I’d never order a salad dish as a starter or main (I’m not talking side salads, here) without some accompanying tasty bits or some nice meat. As Ms R was away and I was entertaining, I thought I’d go for a cheesy, red meat kind of menu and as I’d already decided to make a Beef stew with horseradish dumplings for mains, the cheese was going to have to form part of the surrounding courses.

On searching for an interesting salad, I did see a couple that had ingredients I fancied using. The main ingredient that caught my eye was toasted, spiced walnuts, so I kind of based the salad around the walnuts & Cropwell Blue Shropshire cheese (kind of a mix between Stilton, Lancashire & Double Gloucester), using up other ingredients I had to had (ripe pears) or flavours I thought would be a good addition. Anyway, recipe is as below:

Recipe for Pear, Bacon, Cropwell Blue & Spiced Walnut Salad (for 3):

2 heads of chicory

Big handful of Rocket

1 Ripe Pear

Handful of Walnuts

Cayenne Pepper

Ground Cinnamon

Ground Cumin

3 slices of streaky bacon

100g Cropwell Blue Shropshire Cheese (although I think Stilton would work pretty well, too)

2 Tbps Extra Virgin Olive Oil

1 Tbps Pedro Ximenez balsamic vinegar (normal balsamic is fine)

First off, toast the walnuts in the spices. I did this in a pan in the end, with a drop of oil, just to help the spices coat the walnuts, although you probably don’t need the oil and cook for about 5 mins on a medium heat. Remove and put aside. Chop the bacon into bits and fry in the pan you toasted the walnuts in , on a high heat, until crisp (about another 5 mins). Whilst the bacon is cooking, chop the pear in half lengthways and remove any pips, stalk and chop off the other end. Slice the pear lenghways and arrange on three small plates, with space in between for the chicory leaves. Mix the extra virgin olive oil with the balsamic vinegar, put the rocket & chicory leaves into a bowl and then mix the dressing into the salad leaves. Remove the chicopry leaves and put in the spaces you left in between the pear slices. Chop the cheese into small chunks and add to the rocket, along with the cooked bacon and toasted, spicy walnuts. Give it a good mix and then place in the middle of the plates you’ve prepared.

Although this is a bit of a faff, it’s pretty straightforward and does have lots of interesting flavours. The bitter chicory, peppery rocket, sweet pear, umami cheese plus the spicy nuts all make for lots of contrasting tastes that also seem to complement eachother pretty well. I have to admit, I was quite pleased with myself for coming up with this one!