This fresh pear and brie salad with blackberry vinaigrette has fresh pear, brie cheese and is a beautiful and colorful salad that is absolutely delish!
So while most Thanksgiving side dishes can be heavy, rich and loaded with butter and cream (which I totally love and respect)… maybe add a salad this year. Maybe add this salad!!
Because it’s bright, fresh and beautiful!
To Make This Pear and Brie Salad You Will Need:
for the vinaigrette:
- blackberries
- white wine vinegar
- juice and zest of half an orange
- honey
- dried thyme
- kosher salt
- freshly ground black pepper
- extra virgin olive oil
for the salad:
- mixed baby salad greens
- pear
- brie
- toasted walnuts
- osher salt
I was inspired by a salad my friend ordered at a restaurant, it was a little different, okay a lot different. But it had blackberries and Brie in it! Oh how I love Brie! So while I was wondering the aisles of my grocery store, I picked up a few of the ingredients, invited my best friend over and made us this salad. We both had two helpings… and marveled in the combination of creamy Brie, fresh pear and blackberries.
First, make the vinaigrette. Rinse and pat dry 1 cup blackberries.
Next, throw a carton or a cup of blackberries into a food processor.
And then blitz them until it looks like jelly. Or… never mind.
Next, press them through a mesh strainer to catch those nasty seeds and discard. Now… who sees the heart?
You should be left with a smooth blackberry puree.
Next add in 1/4 cup white wine vinegar, 2 teaspoons honey, pinch of dried thyme, 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt, 1/4 teaspoon black pepper and the juice and zest of half an orange zest. Funny thing, when I was zesting the orange and I must have thought it’d be a good idea to rest the orange on my micro-plane and like a sack of bricks it fell into my dressing and sending my micro plane into the air, creating, well something that looks like…
A murder scene. True story.
But I pressed on… and took my anger out on the orange by cutting it in half and squeezing the life out of it. Ahhh… I felt much better.
Whisk all those together.
This is the tough part. My right arm can attest to it… SLOWLY and I mean S-L-O-W-L-Y stream in 3/4 cup extra virgin olive oil and whisk the bejesus out of it!!
Next, set the dressing aside and quarter a couple pears. That’s about a quarter of a pair per person, usually.
Then remove the center core.
Then thinly slice.
Brie. I love brie. Baked, not baked… I don’t care I love it.
Unroll it. Obvi!? Don’t freak about the white edible wax… it’s, ahem… edible.
Them slice into disks. discs? Whichever, you can leave them like this, or break them up and scatter.
I like them whole, but that’s because I have a crazy obsession with brie and the more brie the better!
Next, build your salad by layering, spring lettuce, sliced brie, pears and sprinkle the pears with a little kosher salt. Next, top with toasted walnuts.
…and then finally drizzle with the blackberry dressing. I could seriously drink this stuff.
Enjoy! And if you give this Pear and Brie Salad with Blackberry Vinaigrette recipe a try, let me know! Snap a photo and tag me on twitter or instagram!
Fresh Pear and Brie Salad with Blackberry Vinaigrette
Ingredients
- 1 cup fresh blackberries
- 1/4 cup white wine vinegar
- 1/2 orange, juice and zest
- 2 teaspoons honey
- 1 pinch dried thyme
- 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt, more or less to taste
- 1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper, more or less to taste
- 3/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
FOR THE SALAD:
- 8 ounces mixed salad greens
- 2 pears, quartered and sliced thin
- 6 ounces brie
- 1/3 cup toasted walnuts
- kosher salt, to taste
Instructions
- Puree the blackberries and then strain them through a wire mesh sieve.
- Combine the berry puree, honey, vinegar, honey, kosher salt, black pepper, orange zest and juice in a bowl and whisk while slowly pouring a steady stream of the olive oil.
- Taste to check seasonings, adjust if needed and set aside.
- Divide the greens among plates.
- Quarter the pears and remove the center core/stem. Slice the pears into thin pieces, arrange on top of the greens and sprinkle with a little kosher salt. Slice Brie and scatter evenly.
- Drizzle with the blackberry vinaigrette and garnish with the toasted walnuts.
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absolutely gorgeous!!!! LOVE brie!! and your vinaigrette is killer!!!
I will be making this! Thank you!
Beautiful salad! Getting blackberries is a bit tough right now … I wonder if I could use blackberry jam to make the dressing … Love your beautiful pear … what type of pear is that?
Wow- this salad is beyond gorgeous! And I really LOVE the idea of the blackberry dressing…YUM!
This is really a refreshing salad yummy..
This salad is uhhhhmmmazing. Yum.
I've never seen a brie LOG before! I'm a new woman.
i love the blackberry dressing idea…and i love that the seeds are strained out! they're the reason i can't bring myself to eat blackberries, but i think drinking the vinaigrette would work out just fine 😉
I can't say that I am all that excited about Tgiving yet…just wrapping my mind around the fact that it's already November! But your salad looks delicious, I am excited about that. I buzzed it!
this is the kind of salad one would find at a high end restaurant, but it's also quite easy (and cheaper) to make at home! 😀
The combination of pear and blackberry looks really delicious. It's not something I would have thought of…but I'm really excited to try this recipe!
first time here and i love the space ….vinaigrette looks absolutely awesome
This looks great! My daughter *loves* purple and pears so I think she'll love this!
Susan~ I believe it is a red bartlett… but any pear will do!
Interesting blog, I really enjoyed browsing it 🙂
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I love beautiful salads and this one is composed so beautifully!
What a beautiful blackberry vinaigrette! I'm with you on the Brie love (technically yes, we capitalise it because it's named after its namesake region in France).
I also totally believe in plenty of fresh flavours at Thanksgiving time!
Hi! Making this for Christmas, can you make the dressing ahead of time? This salad looks beautiful for Christmas dinner!
Absolutely! 🙂 Merry Christmas!
Speaking from personal experience, the blackberry puree process totally sucks rocks. But yes, the resulting vinaigrette is perfectly drinkable on its own.
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Blackberries are in season, and I just made this. You weren’t kidding when you said you could drink it. Best. Dressing. Ever. I linked to it in my round up this week.
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