As much as I like a good Waldorf Salad, it’s time for something new. Something fresh, something pretty. I had a novel idea and I shall name it Kaydorf Salad. Or Pear, Walnut & Blue Cheese Salad, whatever rocks your boat, but you gottta admit that doesn’t sound half as good!

Either way, it turned out to be a wonderful green salad with flavors that really compliment each other. It combines sweetness of pears with savory blue cheese. Throw in a few crunchy walnuts, some spicy red onion and serve it with a creamy green herb dressing. Finger-licking good, but you’re probably better off eating this one with a fork! Less messy.

Ingredients:

Salad:

lettuce and/or salad leaves
1 small red onion
blue-cheese
walnuts
pear

Dressing:

1/2 cup mayonnaise
2 tbsp sour cream
1 spring onion
handful flat-leaf parsley
white wine vinegar
1 small garlic clove
lemon juice
fresh chives
chervil
pepper
salt

Directions:

* I opted for a creamy and herby green dressing. It turned out to be a really good choice for this salad. But I’m sure a multitude of dressings will work for this one.

Here’s what I used.

Chop 1 spring onion and add it to your blender or immersion blender bowl along with a small garlic clove. You could also give everything a fine chop and combine it, but I really wanted a green dressing. Like in Hulk green, though I never understood why the guy was green in the first place.

Add 1/2 a cup of the holy Hellmann’s along with 2 tbsp sour cream (demi crème fraiche in my case), a small handful (I have tiny hands) flat-leaf parsley and a pinch of salt and black pepper.

I’ve added 1/4 tsp white wine vinegar (but feel free to omit it) and a little splash of fresh lemon juice. I’ve also added some chives. Don’t go overboard on the chives!

Blend. Blitz. And there you have it: green dressing. Stir in some dried chervil.

I bought a big bag of mixed lettuce and salad leaves.

I stole two of the kiddo’s pears. They even had little smiley stickers on them. Oh come on now, it’s all for the sake of blogging. He’ll understand when he’s older and he only cried a little.

Peel, slice or dice the pear(s) anyway you like to and finely slice the red onion. Remember; no salad benefits from huge chunks of onion, so slice as thin as you possibly can!

Randomly add some walnuts. I left a couple whole and broke some into 4 pieces. I like to break stuff for fun.

At this point I drizzle a bit of dressing over the salad. Not too much. Serve the rest on the side for those of us metabolically less fortunate.

Add the sweet, juicy pear to the salad.

Perhaps you remember my roasted tomatoes and magor sauce? I used magor there: mascarpone with gorgonzola. This is camembert combined with blue cheese. It’s awesome stuff. But anything goes: Gorgonzola, Roquefort, whatever you like. Just crumble the cheese between your fingers and add it to the salad.

Seriously, who knew a salad could look this sexy?