I’ve been loving Asian-inspired, sesame forward flavors this week, and this salad has been making a lunch-time appearance on repeat.  This salad is super simple, yet so full of good flavors and loaded with veggies.  The vinaigrette is a simple combination of sesame oil and rice wine vinegar, which is a fun twist on my normal vinaigrettes that I usually make with good olive oil and balsamic.  Added to the lettuce base, I included a nice handful of roughly chopped mint leaves. Adding herbs to salad is a simple way to boost flavor and nutrition into a bed of (generally flavorless) lettuce.  Topped with a sweet addition of a pear and a sprinkle of salt, this salad is really firing on all flavor cylinders while being so easy to put together.

Recipe down below, photo up top!  This recipe is enough to make one big lunch serving of salad, so feel free to scale up to make this as a dinner or side salad for a group!

Pear Salad with a Sesame Vinaigrette

Ingredients:

• 1 ½ cups salad greens
  • Romaine, iceberg, little gem, or any salad mix would work great
• ¼ cup of mint leaves (about 15-20 leaves)
• 1 pear
• 1 tsp sesame oil
• 1 tsp rice wine vinegar
• ¼ tsp flakey (Maldon) or any salt

Method:

1. Thoroughly wash and dry the salad greens and mint leaves, as needed.  Place your greens onto a large plate or in a to-go lunch container.
2. Chop or tear the mint leaves into very large pieces (about halves or thirds of the total leaf size).  Top the salad greens with the mint leaves by spreading into an even layer.
3. Cut the pear in half (lengthwise) and in half again (lengthwise) to make quarters.  Using a knife or an apple corer, remove the stem and core by cutting down the inner corner of the pear.  Once the core has been removed, slice the pear quarters in half again (lengthwise), then slice these halves crosswise into 1 inch pieces to create bite-sized chunks.  Add your pear pieces to the top of the salad greens and mint leaves.
4. Drizzle salad with the sesame oil and rice wine vinegar, and sprinkle the salad with salt.
5. Grab a fork and enjoy!