Pecan-Crusted Goat Cheese and Roasted Pear Salad

Through the years, I've played around with different ingredients in salads to suit our tastes. Sometimes I'll try to copy a salad from a restaurant, and other times-I just use what we have on hand in our refrigerator.

This salad is an adaptation of a salad we used to have when we lived in Memphis. Paulette's had the most wonderful mixed greens salad with fried pecan-crusted goat cheese. I'm trying to eat healthier, so I coated the goat cheese in toasted pecans and skipped the frying. The roasted pears in this salad come from a recipe I made up many years ago that has cornbread croutons, bacon, spinach, and roasted pears.

Pecan-Crusted Goat Cheese and Roasted Pear Salad

Ingredients:

• Your choice of greens. I used an organic spinach salad blend.
• Thinly sliced purple onion
• A couple of slices of pan-fried bacon, crumbled
• About a 1/4 cup pecans
• Non-stick cooking spray
• 1 small log of good quality goat cheese
• Girard's Champagne Dressing (available in most grocery stores)
• 1 ripe pear for each salad
• Brown sugar or honey
• Salt and pepper to taste

Directions:

• Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
• Lightly spray a small skillet with cooking spray. Heat skillet over medium heat. Add pecans. Toast the pecans for 3-6 minutes, flipping often to avoid burning.
• Let pecans cool and pulse them finely in a food processor. Set aside.
• Slice the goat cheese log into approximately 1/2 inch slices. If the goat cheese crumbles, don't sweat it. You can easily reshape the slices.

• Lightly salt and pepper one side of the goat cheese. Press the pecan pieces onto each side. Place in refrigerator while you prepare the rest of the salad.
• Place parchment paper or a Silpat pad on a baking sheet. 
• Peel pears and cut into wedges. Place on baking sheet and bake for about 7 minutes.
• Remove from oven and turn over pears with a spatula. 
• Lightly sprinkle pears with brown sugar or drizzle with honey. 
• Return to oven and bake 5-7 minutes or until sugar starts to caramelize a bit. Be careful. These can burn easily once the sugar is on them.

• In individual salad bowls, add spinach mix.
• Add crumbled bacon, purple onion, pears, and 2-3 goat cheese slices.
• Add salt and fresh cracked pepper if desired and drizzle champagne dressing onto finished salad.

Enjoy!

Have a great weekend!

XOXO