Dear Reader I promise that this is the best rocket pear salad you will ever eat. It was inspired by one that I ate overseas and it features rocket salad leaves, thinly sliced pear, caramelised walnuts, parmesan cheese and a simple balsamic olive oil dressing. I've eaten so many rocket salads in my life and this is truly the best. This is a pushy recipe Dear Reader!
Rocket salad is a reliable stalkwart of any Italian restaurant and I've eaten hundreds of them at home and in restaurants. But it wasn't until I had a rocket salad in South Africa's And Then There Was Fire restaurant that featured not only walnuts but caramelised walnuts that my rocket salad life changed. Seriously, it's that good!
I know you're probably thinking that caramelising walnuts is a pain and that it's too hard to add this step for a very simple salad. But what if I showed you how to make these caramelised walnuts in 5 minutes? Pinky swear! Trust me, it really makes this salad incredible.
Tips For Making Rocket Salad
1 - Start with caramelising the walnuts and then leave them to cool and harden. The key to caramelising the nuts is to regularly turn them with a spatula so that they are coated all over with the sugar. When the nuts cool they will harden up and these nuts will last for 2-3 weeks in an airtight jar. I make a big lot of these and use throw them in lots of different kinds of salads or on roasted pumpkin.
2 - I find that if I wash the rocket and don't dry it properly (using a salad spinner) then the flavour is really diluted and the salad isn't as tasty. Otherwise you I recommend buying pre-washed rocket.
3 - Use a firm pear and remove the core with a melon baller. Then slice it very thinly. Soft pears won't hold their shape in the salad and will become mushy.
4 - I use balsamic glaze (rather than balsamic vinegar) and extra virgin olive oil for the dressing.
5 - This salad is best dressed just before serving. I always place the dressing, salt and pepper in a jar and shake it just before I use it.
6 -I love using walnuts because they are slightly bitter which offsets the caramel but feel free to use other nuts that you like like pecans.
Other Easy Salad Recipes You Might Like
- Rocket, Parmesan & Sunflower Seed Salad
- Frozen Tomato Burrata Salad
- Spiral Cucumber Salad
- Shaved Fennel & Orange Salad
- Mexican Street Corn Salad
- OR try these arugula/rocket and parmesan scones-they're really delicious!
Sometimes things are intuitive like a rocket salad which I think every household whips up from time to time. And sometimes relationships, or at least the best ones, are completely about intuitiveness. Monica can tell how I feel just with an emoji. One day she sent me a picture of sushi restaurant that looked really good and I suggested that we go. We often send each other places we want to go together and then make plans if we both like the sound of the food.
But this time she told me that she and Marco were going to be in around that area and that they were going to try it. When I read this message I pouted a bit because I wanted to go but of course if she is going to be in the area she should go. So I gave her message a thumbs up emoji not showing exactly how betrayed (ok being dramatic haha) I felt.
But she know because a few seconds later I got a message, "But can we go together after if it’s decent? It’s a perfect food adventure."
I confessed that I was a bit pouty when I gave I heard that she was going.
"I felt it," she said laughing. Because sometimes your friend just knows how you are feeling!
So tell me Dear Reader, can you tell how your friends are feeling just from an emoji? How often do you make a rocket salad?
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