Asian Pear and Greens Salad

The last few CSA boxes have had a lot of fruit, as if during the summer, we might all want to stop doing any cooking and just eat fruit and make smoothies for awhile. As a matter of fact, there is a lot of that going on here at Full Belly: we eat a lot of melons and don’t turn the oven on for long.

With the surplus of fruit in mind, I thought about ways to use Asian Pears besides just popping them in your mouth as a snack. If you have time and like to bake, this recipe for an Asian Pear Tart looks really good:

http://www.latimes.com/features/food/la-fo-asian-tart-s,0,4265731.story

A lot of us like to make salads with a mixture of tastes and textures – sweet, earthy, tangy and crunchy. The following salad qualifies.

1/4 cup of olive oil
2 Tablespoons lemon juice
1/2 teaspoon chopped thyme. You can substitute peppermint if you have that do not have thyme.
Salt and pepper
1 cup mizuna or arugula
1-lb of Asian pears, cored and very thinly sliced
1/2 cup salted roasted pumpkin seeds (roasted, salted walnuts can be substituted)
Fresh goat cheese, crumbled

In a small bowl, whisk the olive oil with the lemon juice and chopped fresh herbs. Season the dressing with salt and pepper.

In a large bowl, toss the greens with the pear slices and pumpkin or walnut seeds. Add the dressing and toss well. Top with the crumbled goat cheese and serve!