Parsnip and Pear Salad

Like a lot of food-lovers, I’m a recipe slut, and I’ll look for inspiration for new dishes anywhere, any time. This includes reading through the magazines and brochures that you can pick up at grocery stores and which generally seemed to be meant to sell the store’s products, plus are aimed at carnivores.

A few weeks ago, I picked one up and amidst all the advertisements for the store’s ready-prepared vegetable mixes and ready-made meals, I found a couple of potential recipes I could play with. One was for a salad of parsnips, chestnuts, pears, and walnuts.

Yes, pears and walnuts are a really good combination, but my girlfriend is allergic to walnuts, and a bit wary of other nuts as well. And I personally am ambivalent about chestnuts, and wasn’t eager to spend time roasting and peeling them. So as one often does with published recipes, I took the basic idea and adapted it to better suit our tastes.

The visual side of things isn’t usually my strong suit, but I placed alternating parsnip and pear slices in a sort of spiral on the plate, topped with crumbled blue cheese, and it didn’t look too bad. Also, I thought it tasted pretty good, although I served it after the parsnips and pears had cooled down, and next time I think it would better warm, possibly with a handful of pine nuts sprinkled on top as well.

Ingredients:
2 parsnips
olive oil
2 pears
butter
2 tsp sugar
baby spinach leaves or endive
stilton or other blue cheese
2 tbsp olive oil
1 tbsp balsamic vinegar
2 tsp mustard
1 splash lemon juice
black pepper

Instructions:
1. Peel the parsnips and slice them into quarters or eighths lengthwise, depending on how thick they are.
2. Toss with oil and roast them for about 25 minutes at 200 C.
3. Quarter and de-seed the pears and then fry them in butter and sugar until softened and lightly browned, about 8-10 minutes.
4. Place the spinach on the plates and top with the parsnip and pear pieces.
5. Crumble the blue cheese over the parsnips and pears.
6. Mix the olive oil, vinegar, mustard, lemon juice, and black pepper into a dressing and dress the salad.