Raspberry Pomegranate Pear Salad

Sweet, juicy pears over salad greens with sweet-tart raspberries and pomegranate seeds, crunchy pistachios, creamy seasoned goat cheese crumbles, and salty smoked bacon with a lovely maple dijon dressing, this festive holiday salad is a feast for the eyes AND the taste buds! It’s everything you want in a holiday salad.

I love a really good ripe, juicy pear. Years ago, I had friends with pear trees that would invite me to help with the harvest and really, that was the first time I ever truly experienced and learned just how amazing a beautiful ripe pear can taste.

… but said friends have since moved away, and even if they hadn’t, would we be getting together this year? Likely not.

The pears you buy at the grocery store can sometimes get close, if you are able to get the pear at the exact ripest, sweetest moment of ripeness. A pear is perfectly ripe and juicy when you gently press in on the top and it has a little “give” to it.

Pears can also be ripened at home, if you buy them in a not-quite-ripe state. Place the unripened pears in a closed paper bag, then check them each day until they have that little bit of give on the top. Once they are ripe, you can store the pears in your fruit drawer in the fridge to keep them from spoiling too quickly, but be gentle with them because they will bruise easily when they are ripe.

I did break down and buy some pears at the grocery store this year and they were very pretty, but they were sadly unripe and very hard. One of my friends texted me one day and told me the fruit club was giving away free pears that day. I happened to be going down that way anyway, so I stopped by and it was TRUE! Free pears and apples, as many as you want. You could give a donation to the Peach Festival if you wanted. I gathered up a few, but they encouraged me to take as many as I wanted and handed me a paper bag. So I gathered up a good bunch of them, put in $5 as a donation in their jar and drove away feeling so happy and excited about my beautiful pears. They looked to be from someone’s tree here in town (which might explain why they were free).

As I was driving away, I thought “how much would I have paid for these pears at the grocery store?” and thinking maybe $5 was a bit much, but you know what? It made not a spec of difference to my joy at that moment. I was so crazy excited to try my pretty little free pears … and when I bit into the first one, it was sooo sweet and juicy, it was worth every penny and then some. They weren’t all perfectly ripe, but a few days in the paper bag and tossed in the ones from the grocery store as well … and they all ripened up very nicely.

I happened to have some pretty red raspberries and a pomegranate in my fridge and thought this combination would be a stellar salad for the holidays. The combination of flavors, colors, and textures really is amazing here, just what you want in a holiday salad.

Happy holidays to all of you, my foodie friends! I hope this finds all of you healthy, safe, and happy and if not, stay strong and know that someone out there is sending you well wishes. (Me!)

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