Radicchio and Endive Salad with Blue Cheese Vinaigrette

Let’s be honest, salads can be bland and boring. If you don’t have the right ingredients, a salad can leave you completely unsatisfied. BUT, there really is nothing like a good salad. To make a good salad, you need texture. You have to have multiple dimensions in a salad for it to be satisfying. Crunch is a key texture and this salad has some major crunch. This recipe calls for romaine, endive, and radicchio which pretty much covers all the basis. Topped with toasted hazelnuts, creamy blue cheese, and pears gives it all the flavor profiles you want in a salad and it complements my Creamy Brie Macaroni and Cheese perfectly. This is a comfort meal at its finest. Perfect for a casual dinner with friends but elevated enough for even your fanciest guests.

Recipe

Ingredients:

1/4 cup chopped hazelnuts

1 head radicchio, finely chopped

2 hearts of romaine, finely chopped

5 endives, finely chopped

2 red pears

1/4 cup olive oil

1/8 cup rice vinegar

1/4 cup blue cheese, crumbled

1/8 tsp salt

1/8 tsp fresh ground pepper

1 Tbsp honey

1 Tbsp dijon mustard

To make the dressing:

In a small bowl, add olive oil, vinegar, honey and mustard. Whisk to combine.

Add blue cheese crumbles to mixture and whisk to combine until blue cheese is creating a creamy texture to the dressing.

Add salt and pepper to taste. Set dressing aside. You can make this up to 3 days in advance and store in the fridge.

To make the salad:

Finely chop lettuce, radicchio, and endive - toss in serving bowl.

Core and thinly slice pears. Place onto of lettuce mixture.

Sprinkle chopped hazelnuts on top of pears.

Drizzle with blue cheese dressing.

Enjoy!