Table of Contents

1. Reasons to make this salad:
2. What are the ingredients and substitutions for pear spinach salad?
3. How to make this pear spinach salad?
4. Can I make this in advance?
5. Can I use a different type of salad dressing?
6. Can I use a different type of orange?
7. Other salad recipes you should try:
8. Recipe

Happy New Year! While I don't generally make New Years Resolutions, I do often crave some greens in January (probably from polishing off all those Christmas cookies in December!). All kidding aside, this salad is so tasty, and it definitely hits the spot and brings a healthy dose of vitamins after all that holiday craze.

Reasons to make this salad:

• its super simple and quick to make
• it's healthy in a non-boring way
• it had my two year old chowing down on spinach leaves (yes, really)
• it is easy to customize to suit your tastes
• it has minimal ingredients (including the dressing!)
• most importantly, it is so tasty!

What are the ingredients and substitutions for pear spinach salad?

There are just a handful of ingredients needed for this beautiful salad

• spinach - I prefer baby spinach because it is more tender and has a milder taste
• pears - sliced thin, and still a bit firm to make sure they don't turn to mush in the salad; I used Bartlett but you can use your favorite kind
• oranges - I love blood oranges for their taste and appearance but any type of orange would be good
• pecans - add a bit of crunch to the salad
• cranberries - every fancy salad has these, right?
• feta cheese - for a bit of tang in the salad; i like to buy the pre crumbled kind for convenience; softer goats cheese works great as well
• olive oil - or your favorite salad dressing oil
• orange juice - fresh squeezed is best
• honey - to add some sweetness to the salad
• thyme - a hint of extra flavor for the salad dressing
• salt - to enhance all the delicious flavors in this salad

How to make this pear spinach salad?

step one: in a small bowl, whisk together olive oil, orange juice, honey, thyme, and salt until completely combined; set aside

step two: on a large platter or in a large bowl, place spinach followed by pears, oranges, cranberries, pecans, and feta

step three: drizzle dressing over the salad either on the serving platter or on individual plates

Can I make this in advance?

Yes, this salad is great to make ahead of time, just don't add the dressing until right before serving!

Can I use a different type of salad dressing?

Yes, you can use a store-bought dressing if it is easier (but I reccommend the homemade one since it is super tasty and literally takes 2 minutes!). I would suggest a simple balsamic dressing or a lemon poppyseed dressing if you decide to go the store bought route.

Can I use a different type of orange?

Yes, you can use whatever orange you want! Regular oranges or even a clementine would work well in place of a blood orange. I wouldn't reccommend using the canned mandarin oranges though because fresh oranges have a bit of a sour taste that is lost in the canned variety which pairs perfectly with this salad.

Other salad recipes you should try:

• sweet berry salad
• lentil feta salad