A perfectly peared salad with grilled cheese and port wine dressing
I love how this salad looks and just how versatile it is. The Port wine reduction vinaigrette and the grilled cheese make it a special and elegant salad to have as a Christmas starter or side option.Its appearance on the table brings an added bit of festive decoration.The jewel in the Christmas crown. This is also a great make ahead recipe!
I love that I can grill all the cheese, and make the reduction
vinaigrette a day or two in advance. This really helps me maximize my
time preparing for a special event or just the week ahead. This pear salad recipe is a fantastic side dish that pairs perfectly with roast turkey or chicken, and even with a juicy steak. But honestly, I found that I also love to eat it as a meal, just by its delicious self. 
Pear Salad Recipe with Port Wine Dressing and Grilled Cheese
For the salad red pears – any pears are OK, really. I just like to use the red ones because they add beautiful subtle colour to the salad.
You can even use apples if you want, I used them in addition to the pears. wild rocket– Rocket is my fave choice, but I could see why some might opt for spinach, which would work just as well halved walnuts – or any other chopped nut work brilliantly here. Radishes- sliced part way through in thin segments and doused in iced water give the dish a Christmasy effect cheese for grilling
The Best Cheese to choose for grilling
Halloumi – in terms of flavour and texture this is what the salad needs. For most it should not be an issue sourcing it, however here in the East Algarve I did, so came up with a solution. Back in the summer I made a salad for two of our four only guests of the year.I grilled some Queijo fresco and topped a salad with it.T he guests loved it and remarked on the texture saying it reminded them of grilled hallumi, so there the story goes of how I created this seasonal version of the aforesaid. Queijo Fresco – This is a reasonably inexpensive option, also normally widely available. It’s a very good alternative. Feta - as a last resort feta can be grilled but you have to be careful as it crumbles easily
For the Port wine dressing
Port wine
apple cider vinegar
extra virgin olive oil
whole grain old fashioned mustard – this is definitely my preference, but, you can sub
for any other good mustard of your choice that you may already have at home, like dijon.
fresh rosemary How to make port wine reduction dressing
Port wine as you all know is a fortified sweet Portuguese wine, that’s typically served as a dessert wine or as a digestive. Port is a very common thing in our house, and I often use it to make special steak sauces and desserts. Port is also one of the first wines I drank because it was so sweet and dangerously easy to drink, and it stuck with me.
For this recipe you don’t need a best quality drinking Port wine. Real Port wine although not unreasonably expensive, it’s also not a cheap tipple. If you’re on a budget, you can just use an average cooking Port wine that you can find at the supermarket.
Add the Port wine to a sauce pan over medium to high heat and bring to a boil. Let it simmer uncovered until the wine is reduced to about 1/4 cup and is syrupy and coats the back of a spoon. Let it cool.
For the salad
Halloumi – in terms of flavour and texture this is what the salad needs. For most it should not be an issue sourcing it, however here in the East Algarve I did, so came up with a solution. Back in the summer I made a salad for two of our four only guests of the year.I grilled some Queijo fresco and topped a salad with it.T he guests loved it and remarked on the texture saying it reminded them of grilled hallumi, so there the story goes of how I created this seasonal version of the aforesaid.
For the Port wine dressing
Port wine
apple cider vinegar
extra virgin olive oil
whole grain old fashioned mustard – this is definitely my preference, but, you can sub
for any other good mustard of your choice that you may already have at home, like dijon.
fresh rosemary
Port wine as you all know is a fortified sweet Portuguese wine, that’s typically served as a dessert wine or as a digestive. Port is a very common thing in our house, and I often use it to make special steak sauces and desserts. Port is also one of the first wines I drank because it was so sweet and dangerously easy to drink, and it stuck with me.
For this recipe you don’t need a best quality drinking Port wine. Real Port wine although not unreasonably expensive, it’s also not a cheap tipple. If you’re on a budget, you can just use an average cooking Port wine that you can find at the supermarket.
1 cup of Port wine
1/4 cup of apple cider vinegar
1 tsp whole grain old fashioned mustard
1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil
a sprig of rosemary
salt and pepper
4-5 red pears washed, cored and cut into crescent slices
2 red apples cored and sliced in thin crescents
350g grilling cheese (halloumi) cubed 1-2 5 oz bag of baby rocket
1/4 cup of walnuts halved
8-10 radishes,sliced 3/4 way through in thin segments but keeping the radish whole.After slicing keep them in a bowl of iced water until you are ready to assemble the salad.This will help keep the segments open
1/4 cup of apple cider vinegar
1 tsp whole grain old fashioned mustard
1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil
a sprig of rosemary
salt and pepper
4-5 red pears washed, cored and cut into crescent slices
2 red apples cored and sliced in thin crescents
350g grilling cheese (halloumi) cubed 1-2 5 oz bag of baby rocket
1/4 cup of walnuts halved
8-10 radishes,sliced 3/4 way through in thin segments but keeping the radish whole.After slicing keep them in a bowl of iced water until you are ready to assemble the salad.This will help keep the segments open
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