Culinary Curious

Roasted Red Onion and Pear Salad Photo: Keller + Keller

Roasted Red Onion and Pear Salad

Presented by America's Test Kitchen

Serves 6

Why this recipe works:

In this Roasted Red Onion and Pear Salad recipe, we found that browning the onions in a hot oven until softened and browned tempered their strong flavor. Dried thyme tasted dusty and bland, so we prefer fresh chopped thyme in the recipe. Regular almonds will do in a pinch, but smokehouse almonds, or salted, smoked almonds, added valuable flavor to the Roasted Red Onion and Pear Salad recipe.

NOTE: Keep this salad fresh (and the pears from turning brown) by tossing the chopped pears with a couple of teaspoons of lemon juice.

Ingredients

  • 2 tablespoons orange juice
  • 1 tablespoon lemon juice
  • 1 teaspoon Dijon mustard
  • 1 teaspoon honey
  • 1/4 teaspoon chopped fresh thyme leaves
  • 6 tablespoons vegetable oil or olive oil
  • 1 red onion, cut into 1-inch wedges, with root end intact
  • 1 head Bibb lettuce, leaves separated but left whole
  • 1 (6-ounce) bag baby spinach (about 8 cups)
  • 1 ripe pear, cored and cut into 1-inch chunks
  • 1/2 cup crumbled goat cheese
  • 1/3 cup smokehouse almonds, chopped coarse
  • 1/4 cup dried cranberries

Method

  1. Adjust oven rack to middle position and heat oven to 400 degrees.
  2. Whisk orange and lemon juices, mustard, honey, and thyme together in medium bowl. Gradually whisk in 4 tablespoons oil. Season with salt and pepper.
  3. Toss onion wedges with remaining 2 tablespoons oil, 1/4 teaspoon salt, and 1/4 teaspoon pepper. Transfer to baking sheet and roast until brown and soft, 25 minutes, flipping wedges halfway through cooking. Cool 15 minutes.