This was a great holiday salad. However, I took the suggestion from other reviews and modified the recipe somewhat. I decreased the vinegar to 2 Tbsp and increased the sugar to 2 Tbsp. I used bagged mixed baby green and spinach and radicchio. Also my local market didn't have gongorzola cheese so I used feta. I tossed some dressing on greens then arranged on plate. I sprinkled nuts, cheese, and fanned pear slices on top. Finally I drizzled additional dressing on top. It got rave reviews from my luncheon guests!
I completely agree with those who (when using dried cranberries) eliminated the sugar. I also highly recommend using rice wine vinegar - I've made it twice, and the second (with the aforementioned vinegar) was far superior.
This recipe is a good starting point.
The cider vinegar is too strong so I switched and put rice vinegar in place of cider vinegar and then added 2 tablespoons of cider vinegar.
I increased the sugar to 2 tablespoons and added 1 teaspoon of fresh lemon juice for zip.
I increased the pears so each person got one half a pear.
Asian pears also work if you can't find red anjou pears.
I added red food coloring for a deeper color red salad dressing.
For garnish I used halved cranberries and golden raisins.
This was a really delicious salad. I prepared it for a dinner party I was throwing for my sister-in-law and everyone at the table raved about how great it taste and how nice it looked. I highly recommend it to anyone.
Excellent dressing - I used half cider vinegar and half rice wine vinegar and used 2 Tbsp. of white sugar. I also added a couple drops of red food coloring to give the dressing more of that rich red cranberry look. I used a bagged spring mix, thin sliced red delicious apples, thin sliced red onions, dried cranberies and the toasted walnuts (350 for ten minutes).
Most excellent! Although I left out the endive and substituted Asian pears for Anjous this salad was perfect. Second time I made it I tossed in some left over turkey. MMMMM good!
I made this salad for Thanksgiving dinner. The salad was delicious and presented well. I didn't think that Belgian endive was anything special and other cheaper greens could be used in its place without jeopardizing the taste. However I found that the dressing was overwhelmed by the vinegar. I did a lot of adjusting to get the right flavor. I would make the salad again but I would need to find an alternative dressing using the cranberries. The pink/red color of the dressing was very nice.
The vinegar completely overwhelmed all the other tastes (way too much vinegar!). The concept of a cranberry dressing is nice but you would probably need much less vinegar and more sugar. Also it would probably be better to cut the pear in wedges instead of dicing - gives it a more gourmet texture to it.
I was looking for something fresh to put on the table for Thanksgiving and this salad was simple and delicious. To serve I fanned sliced pears in on the bed of greens and sprinkled with nuts and cheese making a nice presentation as well.
