Blue Cheese Salad with Spicy Pecans
- This salad pairs perfectly with pear slices, fresh raspberries, or avocado slices. Prep time: 10 minutes
- ½ cup olive oil
- 3 tablespoons raspberry vinegar
- 1 shallot, minced
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- 1/8-teaspoon white pepper
Whisk together these ingredients – I didn’t read the recipe the first time and just put the shallot into the salad – very good too
- 2 large heads of Bibb (Boston) lettuce, torn
- 4 ounces of blue cheese, crumbled (I used Gorgonzola – yummy)
- 2 green onions, thinly slices
- 2 cups spicy pecans (see below)
Place lettuce in a large bowl. Sprinkle with cheese, green onions, and spicy pecans. Drizzle with vinaigrette and toss gently to coat.
- Makes 8 servings.
Spicy Pecans
- 1/3-cup sugar
- ¼ cup butter
- ¼ cup orange juice
- 1 ¼ teaspoon salt
- 1 ¼ teaspoon cinnamon
- ¼ to ½ teaspoon ground red pepper (I used closer to ½ and it was not too hot so ½ would be OK)
- ¼ teaspoon mace
- 1 pound pecan halves (about 4 cups)
Stir together first 7 ingredients in a heavy skillet over medium heat, stirring until butter melts a sugar dissolves. Remove skillet from heat; add nuts, and toss to coat.
Place pecan mixture in a single layer in an aluminum foil-lined jellyroll pan (cookie sheet with sides) – (There was a lot of liquid left – I put about half of it in the pan with the pecans – feared pecans would be braised rather that crisp, but next time will try the whole amount – key is to keep stirring them to recoat – I also put the oven to about 275 for the hour)
Bake at 250 for 1 hour, stirring every 15 minutes. Cool in pan on wire rack, separating pecans with a fork (I find that it if you get them off their position on the foil by stirring until they are slightly cool then they are easy to dry – they tend to adhere to the foil very quickly as they cool if they have not been moved about.) Store in airtight container, or freeze up to 1 month.
- Makes about 4 cups.
(Cooking Light, December 2002)