This delicious and easy rocket pear salad with walnuts and balsamic dressing takes just 10 minutes to make and is a great light lunch.
This rocket and pear salad takes boring salads to the next level!
Just like my chicken walnut and blue cheese salad it's made with peppery rocket leaves (arugula) giving it an amazing peppery flavour.
It's a healthy recipe with a tasty juicy pear added.
The walnuts give it a lovely crunchy texture and the balsamic salad dressing as well as the sweetness of the pear add an amazing sweet and tangy taste.
It's the perfect combination of flavours to tantalise the taste buds.
But one of the very best things of all is this is a simple salad that takes just 10 minutes to make and the only cooking involved is the toasting of the walnuts!
Although I suggest that this rocket and pear salad is a great light lunch it can be so much more too.
It's also an excellent healthy rocket salad recipe the perfect side dish for BBQ's and picnics.
You could also easily add extra ingredients to it to bulk it up so that it could be an easy main course meal too.
Whatever you choose it to be it's just the perfect combination of flavours for you to enjoy and to add to your list of delicious homemade salads!
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Ingredients
- Red Wine Vinegar
- Balsamic Vinegar
- Extra Virgin Olive Oil
- Freshly Ground Salt and Black Pepper
- Rocket Leaves (arugula)
- Pear
- Walnuts
- Parmesan Cheese
See recipe card for quantities.
How To Make Rocket Pear Salad
Detailed instructions are in the recipe card below. But here is a quick step by step guide of how to make rocket pear salad with walnuts and balsamic dressing:
Step 1
- Make the balsamic dressing.
Step 2
- Place the salad ingredients into a large bowl.
Step 3
- Drizzle balsamic dressing over salad ingredients.
Step 4
- Toss the salad.
Substitutions
- Red Wine Vinegar
- Balsamic Vinegar
- Extra Virgin Olive Oil
- Freshly Ground Salt and Black Pepper
- Rocket Leaves (arugula)- if you can't get rocket you could use watercress or baby spinach.
- Pear - you could use a green apple like a Granny Smith instead.
- Walnuts - you could use toasted pine nuts instead.
- Parmesan Cheese - you could use another hard cheese like goat cheese.
Why You'll Love This Rocket Pear Salad
- It takes just 10 minutes to make.
- It's versatile. It can be a light meal for lunch, a side accompaniment for a dinner party or even a main meal.
- It's just bursting with fresh flavours.
- It's made from healthy ingredients.
- Pears have lots of vitamin c and vitamin k.
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FAQ's
How To Store This Salad?
This salad is best when it's served straight away. Eat it within 24 hours and make sure it's stored in an airtight container.
Serving As A Side Salad What Does Rocket And Pear Salad Go With?
Serve this as a side to grilled meats. It goes especially well with a juicy BBQ steak.
Other Popular Healthy Salad Recipes You Might Enjoy
Rocket Pear Salad With Walnuts And Balsamic Dressing Recipe
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Ingredients
Balsamic Dressing
- ½ teaspoon red wine vinegar
- 4 tablespoon balsamic vinegar
- 2 ½ tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
- Freshly ground salt and pepper
Rocket Pear And Walnut salad
- 60 g rocket
- 1 large pear cored and cut into bit size chunks
- 75 g walnuts lightly toasted*
- 10 g shaved parmesan cheese shaved finely using a vegetable peeler
Instructions
Balsamic Dressing
- Place all dressing ingredients in a jar and shake well seasoning to taste with the salt and pepper.
Rocket Pear And Walnut Salad
- Place the rocket, pear, walnuts, and shaved parmesan cheese into a large bowl.
- Drizzle over a small amount of the balsamic dressing (about 1 tsp), then toss the salad together. Add more balsamic and toss again if required.
- Serve straight away.
Notes
**The recipe makes plenty of balsamic dressing that can be used in other salads.
Nutrition
Nutrition Label
Nutritional information provided below is calculated using paid for online tools and the exact ingredients and quantities used above.
Rate The Recipe
If you’ve made this rocket and pear salad recipe, or any other recipes on Neil's Healthy Meals, then please let me know.
I’d love to hear what you think of my recipe in the comments below and please do rate my recipe 5* if you like it! 🙂
Michelle
Love how fresh and tangy this salad is! Perfect for the upcoming summer months!
Neil
Thanks Michelle. Yes we're hoping to enjoy lots of salads this year. When the sun starts coming out again!
Raymund
One thing I imagine with this salad, they are a good side for a home made pizza. Nice and simple, love it
Neil
That's a great idea Raymond. I never thought of pairing this with a pizza. I'll do that this weekend. Thanks!
Ben | Havocinthekitchen
Beautiful, fresh, and delicious spring salad! I do love the combo of peppery arugula, juicy pears, and nuts. And as you said, there's a plenty of possibilities to make it even more exciting. Sometimes I lightly caramelize nuts in Maple syrup. And Daisy, of course, loves the addition of prosciutto 🙂
Neil
It's a great salad to change and make your own. As you said Ben there's just so many possibilites!
David @ Spiced
I love how well arugula (rocket) pairs with toasted nuts! In fact, we just had an arugula salad over the weekend with a lemon poppyseed dressing and toasted nuts. It was delicious! I feel like this post is telling me to make another arugula salad!!
Neil
It's a great salad for the time of year. And I agree that it's made even better with the toasted nuts! Hope you get a chance to make more rocket salads like this David!
Linger, Kristy Murray
Tis the season for salads and I couldn’t be happier. This pear arugula salad of yours is so light and fresh. What a great combination of flavors and texture. I’m definitely going to need this in my repertoire of salad recipes. Thanks so much for sharing.
Neil
Glad you like it Kirsty! It's definitely the season of salads now. 🙂
Charlie DeSando
Neil, love the pairing of the pears and the arugula
Neil
It does go really well together. Thanks Charlie!
sherry M
a great combo of flavours here neil. i ove pears and walnuts together.
Neil
It's a great combo isn't it? Thanks Sherry!