Pear and Pomegranate Salad with Hazelnuts
As Thanksgiving approaches and my list of things-to-cook grows ever longer– in some kind of cruel inverse proportion to the rapidly shrinking hours of daylight– I occasionally need to step back and reach for something simpler.
Simple as, say, a recipe with a mere three ingredients!
(Three or four, that is… sometimes I just can’t resist.)
This salad is yet another dish that I associate with my family’s beloved winter solstice party.
I think perhaps my mom made it up? It’s a winter salad, just as much as an autumn one: sliced crisp pears, drizzled in fresh lemon juice, and tossed with crunchy tart pomegranate seeds.* My only innovation has been to add hazelnuts!
Though by no means necessary, the chopped hazelnuts make a nice addition to the tangy lemon-soaked sweet pears and juicy pomegranate seeds. The nuts mainly contribute more textural variation along with a nice subtle, comforting flavor; I’m sure pecans would work nicely, too.
Hazelnuts or not, this salad is irresistibly tart, crunchy, and sweet.
The last time I made it, I was a bit heavy-handed with the lemon juice, but somehow after the first lip-puckeringly sour bite of crunchy pear and pomegranate, I enthusiastically dug in for a second bite and then a third.
Maybe I was dehydrated– I don’t know; but the lemony dish was so inviting and fruity, I devoured a whole little bowlful of the stuff as if it were a cold glass of water at the end of a yoga class.
In other words, this salad is like juice you can eat with a fork.
Oh, and it’s also great for dinner/holiday parties or as a side dish/dessert for Thanksgiving! (Almost forgot to mention that part…)
* Love pomegranate seeds, but you’ve never extracted them yourself from an actual pomegranate? See the recipe below for a tip on THE BEST way to cut open a pomegranate (taught to me by a friend who used to have a pomegranate tree in her backyard!).
Print this recipe. (PDF)
RECIPE:
Pear and Pomegranate Salad with Hazelnuts
(Serves 4-6)
Ingredients:
~ 4-5 Tbsp. pomegranate seeds (from 1/4 – 1/3 of a pomegranate)
~ 2 Tbsp. fresh lemon juice, or to taste (less than half of one lemon)
~ 3-4 pears (preferably Bosc pears)
OPTIONAL:
~ 2 Tbsp. hazelnuts, coarsely chopped
How to make it:
1. How to cut a pomegranate: Use a sharp knife to cut a circumference– less than 1/4 of an inch deep– around the entire pomegranate. Use your hands to gently pull the two halves apart. Then cut into fourths using the same method: place each half face-down and cut a groove across the middle of it, then gently pull the two quarters apart. Use your fingers to gently pull apart the sections within each pomegranate quarter, and to loosen the seeds into a bowl.
2. Juice the lemon and set the lemon juice aside. Then thinly and evenly slice the pears, and place them in a bowl or serving dish, gradually drizzling them with lemon juice as you add more pear slices, to keep them from browning. Toss to mix very gently (if necessary to evenly distribute the lemon juice).
3. Sprinkle over the pomegranate seeds (gently mix again if desired). Top with a dusting of chopped hazelnuts, and serve.
Print this recipe! (PDF)
Related recipe posts:
> Pear Brown Butter Buckle
> Baked Brie with Fig Jam in Phyllo Dough
> Chayote Mango Salad with Avocado
spontaneous tomato 
Looks wonderful Allison! I adore Bosc pears – what a lovely way to eat them!
Thanks, Shira! I love Bosc pears, too. Actually, I didn’t say so in the blog post above, but I’m sure this would be great with Asian pears as well…
Great seasonal dish! Very simple….but we like all the flavors…
Thanks! I know… sometimes simple is better.
Beautiful, easy, delicious salad, and perfect to prepare quickly on busy Thanksgiving day!
Yes! Especially if you cut apart the pomegranate (and store the seeds in an airtight container in the fridge) the day before Thanksgiving! :)
What a delicate dish my friend but one which is more than bursting with flavour :)
Cheers
Choc Chip Uru
Thanks! It is definitely bursting with an inviting fruity flavor. It would probably be good even without the lemon juice, but somehow that flavor brings it all together…
This looks and sounds amazing, I will give this a go as soon as possible. Pear and pomegranate, yum!
Yes, it’s a lovely combination! I always think of pears as a little tart, but they are really quite sweet compared to pomegranate seeds, so the result is a nice mix of sweet and sour.
That sounds so sweet-tart-good! I love the photo at the bottom. And I’ll certainly try your peeling method next time–so far my most successful trick is to peel them outside in old clothes. :)
Thanks! I took that last photo on a whim, and almost didn’t post it, but I liked it too :)
You might still want to wear old clothes (or an apron) even with my pomegranate-peeling technique… but at least this way (versus cutting the whole thing in half, like I used to do), you’re not actually cutting through the middle of any of the seeds, so you can pop most of them out intact! (Not that it’s not still messy! Especially if you start to get impatient while doing it…)
Looks beautiful and delicious Allison! So easy too!
Thanks! That reminds me that I should tag this as “easy,” since you’re right about that! :)
Looks great! I love pomegranates! Your site looks great, too, by the way.
Thanks so much! That’s so nice to hear. :)
Amazing dish, Allison! Simple, fresh and …the pictures are great.
Thank you, Francesca! :)
I love it all :-)
:) Me too!
Just g-o-r-g gorgeous, Allison! Love it!
Thanks, Christina!
Fresh and palate cleansing. Looks good as well.
Thanks! It definitely adds a nice fresh component to a Thanksgiving / wintertime meal…
Omg allison I just had a pear spinach salad tody @ a lunch n learn & wondered how to ! Sure enough you come with a great super easy recipe that I abs must try. CAn you poach the Pears. Pl pl share if you can
I’ve only made poached pears once! (In red wine…) I forget exactly how I did it, but I’ll have to investigate doing that again soon– maybe for New Year’s!
Also I looove putting pears on salads with greens like spinach or arugula. I also like pears on Warm Goat Cheese Salad.
Sounds wonderful and refreshing! I love pomegranates, but feel like I always get dissuaded by the work to actually get them out. Someone gave me the great tip to open them under water, which saves alot of the mess! I’m re-inspired to maybe add them to some of my salads now!
Glad this recipe could re-inspire you, pomegranate-wise!
That is an awesome idea to try opening them underwater!! I’m sure it eliminates the mess entirely, though then again that might be slippery, time-consuming work… My way is still messy, but at least you get almost all the seeds out whole, instead of cutting through some of them right down the middle.
Anyway, pomegranates are totally worth the work. Especially because you can peel one at the beginning of the week, pour all the seeds into a tupperware, and then sprinkle them on salads (or whatever) throughout the week!
This looks outstanding! I adore pears and pomegranates, but am not sure if I’ve ever tried them together. Thanks for the inspiration!
Thanks! Pears and pomegranates are pretty divine together… I often think of pears as tart, but paired with the tart pomegranate seeds they taste very sweet in comparison… (that’s where the lemon juice comes in and pulls the whole thing together!)
Oh I can just imagine the combination of sweet and tangy flavours! So creative – I can’t wait to try! :-)
Thanks! It’s really a lovely combination, that’s equal parts tart, fruity, and sweet. Hope you like it! :)
I can just imagine how juicy and refreshing this gorgeous salad is! Thanks for sharing :-)
Thanks for commenting! :) It’s definitely one of my favorite salads at this time of year, and so very refreshing.
Simple and delicious is exactly what I could use now. I would just as happily snap this up as a light dessert, too. As much as I love the grand feast that is Thanksgiving, it just gets to be too much at a certain point, and these clean flavors would cut through all the richness nicely.
Exactly! I think on Thanksgiving especially this would work well as a dessert– it would definitely be unique, refreshing, and palate-cleansing among all the other typical (pie) dessert offerings. (The day I made it for these photos, though, I enjoyed it as an afternoon snack :)
A lovely, easy to compose & seasonal salad, Allison! Beautiful!
Perfect dish!!
Yum! So glad I came over for a look – can’t wait to see more. Such beautiful colours!
Thank you for stopping by! :)
Beautiful and simple. And it looks very Christmas -y! Might try it on the Christmas table. Thanks for sharing!
Thanks! And yes, I usually make it around that time of year (my mom often makes it for our winter solstice party) instead of in November. It’s definitely colorful and Christmas-y! Hope you enjoy it! :)