Ham, pickled pear and blue cheese salad
- Preparation and cooking time
- Total time
- Easy
- Serves 2 (or 4 as a starter)
Skip to ingredients
- 2 small pearsmedium-ripe
- 150ml cider vinegar
- 3 tbsp runny honey
- 8 black peppercorns
- 8 whole cloves
- 2 thick slices bread
- olive oil
- 1 tbsp lemon juice
- 1 tsp poppy seeds
- 2 shallotsfinely sliced
- 1/2 celery stickshaved into ribbons with a peeler
- 200g hamchunk, pulled into bite-size chunks
- 120g blue cheese (such as stilton)crumbled
- 2 good handfuls mixed leavesfrisée, lamb’s lettuce and chicory are all good
Nutrition: per serving
- kcal368
- fat23.3g
- saturates9.2g
- carbs17.7g
- fibre2.7g
- protein20.7g
- salt2.2g
Method
step 1
Peel, halve and core the pears, then slice into 1cm thick moons. Immediately put in a small saucepan with the vinegar, honey and spices and heat until the liquid is just simmering. As soon as it is, take off the heat, cover and leave to pickle, stirring occasionally.
step 2
Heat the oven to 220C/fan 200C/gas 7 and cut or tear the bread into chunky croutons. Mix with 1 tbsp oil and some seasoning, spread out on a baking tray and bake for 8-12 minutes until golden.
step 3
Whisk 2 tbsp oil with 1 tbsp of the pickling liquid, lemon juice and poppy seeds, and drain the pears.
step 4
Tip the croutons, pickled pears, shallots, celery, ham, cheese, leaves and dressing into a bowl, toss together, then divide between plates, to serve.
