Dish of the Week #30
Pear, Walnut & Parmesan Cheese Salad
On 29 May we had our general elections in South Africa. We drove to our polling station just after 8:00am to cast our vote. The line was terribly long and by mid-morning the temperature had reached 30°C/86°F. Five hours later we were finally able to cast our vote.
After standing in the hot sun for so long, none of us felt like cooking. The pears in our fruit bowl seemed like the perfect solution for a quick but tasty salad.
Put it on the table:
The biggest job is to toast the walnuts in a pan on the stove and then you just throw everything together and drizzle a delicious homemade sauce over it and voila … you have a fresh and delicious salad.

Ingredients
1 Packet of Wild Rocket
50g walnuts
2 pears
½ teaspoon Dijon mustard
1 tablespoon honey
1 teaspoon balsamic vinegar
2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
Shavings of Parmesan cheese (to taste)
Roast the walnuts for a few minutes on medium heat and roughly chop them. Thinly slice the pears (do not peel them).

Roast the walnuts

Sliced pears, chopped walnuts and shavings of Parmesan cheese
All that remains now is to mix the mustard, honey, balsamic vinegar and olive oil. Add the wild rocket to the pears, walnuts and Parmesan cheese. Spoon it into a plate and drizzle the sauce over.

A fresh salad for a hot day
We took off our shoes, poured a glass of ice-cold juice and sat under the umbrella in the garden while enjoying our salad! Voting can be very exhausting!
Delicious
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This is a great dish – easy and healthy!
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Delicious and easy salad recipe! Well shared.👏
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Thank you, I’m glad you like it. This is a fresh salad that will be enjoyed by the whole family!
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🤤🤤
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Yum as always – looks so tasty!
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This was a great light dish to put on the table … especially on a hot summer day!
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Having to queue that long is shocking. Especially in the heat. I couldn’t have stood for 5 hours. I hope it is worthwhile and you get a government that isn’t corrupt, though I have little faith in politicians of any party these days.
The salad sounds similar to a Waldorf salad, I use apple and throw in some blue cheese.
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Yes, we were physically exhausted after those 5 hours of standing in the hot sun – we’ll have to see if it was worth it (at least I can complain if I’m not satisfied because I voted … but whether that’s going to help is, of course, another question.).
If we had apple and blue cheese, we probably would have made Waldorf salad, but with just pears in the house, we had to improvise a little bit. It was actually really nice!
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I have had pears in a salad before and it was nice, though I am not too keen on pears (they are either too soft and mushy or too hard!)
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You’re right, pears can be quite ‘tricky’. But this variety (I have no idea what one calls it but it is yellow with a shade of pink) has the perfect balance between soft and hard and we usually buy it.
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The famous Walnut, Parmesan, Pear and Rocket Salad recipe drizzled with balsamic vinegar is the perfect summer salad and one of my favourite things to make as it is bursting with sweet, nutty and fresh flavours and ready in less than 10 minutes. Thanks for sharing, and have a good day 🙂 Aiva xx
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You’re right Aiva, it’s the fresh taste of the various ingredients in the salad that makes it such a delicious dish on a hot summer day! And as you say, it literally only takes 10 minutes and a bowl of salad is ready to be enjoyed!
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I’m such a fan of salads, especially in the summer. The flavours in this salad sound like a great combination. I’ll have to give this a whirl. My leafy greens will be ready to be picked from my garden in a couple of weeks.
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We love salad and it’s definitely better to eat when it’s a hot summer day! And I can guarantee you, if you use your own greens, it’s going to be an even better salad!!
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Five hours seems like a long time to wait to cast a ballot. No wonder you wanted something quick and light. Your salad looks delicious and has a perfect blend of sweet, savory and a bit of tanginess from the greens. Yummy!
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Yes, we’ve never stood this long in a queue to vote. It seems there were nationwide system problems, but at least we were able to cast our vote (now I have a right to complain if things are not working 😉). You’re right Tricia, all the flavours work so well together – I especially love the crunchiness of the walnuts in the salad.
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Looks yummy! I make a similar salad with blue cheese. Maggie
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I think there may be quite a few variations of this salad. We were actually thinking about making a Waldorf salad (with apples instead of pears and blue cheese instead of Parmesan) … but we were too tired to go to the store, and then just improvised. Everything worked out pretty well in the end!
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5 hours in hot sun sounds like torture yet voting is the only power most of us have. Many feel that a single vote is useless and they use it as an excuse to not bother. I have been able to vote by mail but this year I’m not sure what will happen and I can’t see either side being willing to accept the outcome. It is pretty disturbing and not a situation I could have imagined in this country. I do like the sound of your salad! I must ask Grant about wild rocket as I’ve not heard of it before. The dressing looks appetising too.
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Yes, I sometimes wonders what difference one vote can make to how a country is governed … but then again, if 100,000 people think that way, it actually makes a big difference! The salad was delicious – especially on such a hot day! Wild rocket has tangy peppery leaves and we buy them mostly in a mixed pack of green leaves, but it works just as well on its own. We love that dressing – we make it often for our green salads.
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Hierdie lyk weereens na ñ heerlike dis, Corna.🤗
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‘n Slaai op ‘n warm dag is altyd lekker Una. Ek hou van Parmesaan kaas in pasta en was effe skepties om dit in die slaai te gebruik, maar dit was heerlik.
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The salad looks delicious and refreshing! You cannot go wrong with a combination of nuts, cheese and pears. Five hours – that’s an exceptionally long wait. What’s the reason for such long queues?
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I love that so few ingredients can turn a salad into such a delicious dish! The five ours in the voting queue may be due to several factors … maybe more people showed up to vote than expected, but I think it’s also a combination of system problems and incompetent staffing (not at all the polling stations, because there were others where the voting process went smoothly and quickly). Well, at least I got a decent tan 😉.
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Ek hou net so baie van hierdie slaai! Ons het darem net 2 ure gevat om te kon stem!
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‘n Regte somerslaai, is dit nie? My ma het genoem sy het 3 en ‘n half ure gewag en dat ou(er) mense nie spesiale voorkeur gekry het nie … terwyl dit nou weer hier by ons gebeur het. Maar nou ja, nou het ons gestem en sal maar moet sien of dit die moeite werd was om so lank in rye te staan om ons kruisies te trek (lyk darem of dit heel goed in die Wes-Kaap gegaan het).
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Dit het goed in die Wes Kaap gegaan.😀
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Soos hulle sê: Daar’s altyd iets om voor dankbaar te wees.
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Ook weer waar😄
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You had me at balsamic vinegar and honey, yum!
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Those two ingredients go together so well, don’t they? I panic when our pantry doesn’t have honey or balsamic vinegar in it ☺️!
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