This Easy Fall Salad Deserves a Spot in Your Thanksgiving Spread—and in Your Weeknight Dinner Rotation, Too!

Your fall and winter holiday spreads need a salad.

Yes, I know that the holidays like Thanksgiving are for unabashed enjoyment of all things rich, starchy, and beige, but hear me out. A salad not only livens up the table with vibrant colors but also serves as a welcome contrast to the heavy holiday staples, such as mashed potatoes, cheesy casseroles, stuffing, and buttery rolls. Made with fresh, palate-cleansing, bitter raw greens, juicy, caramelized pears, crunchy candied hazelnuts, and a bracing vinaigrette, our pear salad enables you to take a break from the gravy-doused portion of your plate without missing out on flavor. 

Of course, nobody wants to surrender precious dining table real estate to just any old bowl of greens, so we asked our Birmingham, Alabama-based test kitchen colleague Julia Levy to create a winter pear salad that not only is festive and special occasion–worthy, but is also easy enough to make for a weeknight dinner. And, wow, did she deliver, testing batch after batch until she arrived at the perfect formula. Read on for the key techniques for achieving the ideal pear salad and for the full recipe.

Key Techniques for a Vibrant Pear Salad

Use a combination of sturdy greens as the base. We selected greens for this salad with flavor and texture as the top priorities. The late fall is the start of the high season for bitter greens like escarole, so it’s a natural pick for a winter-inspired salad. Its crunchy, slightly watery, vaguely bitter-sweet flavor works well with the sweet pears. Along with escarole, our salad’s base has butter Bibb lettuce—its tender, mild leaves are the perfect balance to the assertive escarole.

Sear the pears. Instead of just adding raw pear to the salad, we roast the pear wedges in a bit of oil in a skillet until they are caramelized on the surface but retain a slight crunch in the middle. To ensure this, start with slightly underripe pears before you sauté them (fully ripe pears are prone to falling apart when cooked).

Incorporate crunchy and punchy ingredients. To really make your salad memorable, you need to incorporate a number of contrasting but complementary textures and flavors. A sprinkle of seasoned candied hazelnuts, quickly browned on the stovetop, and pomegranate seeds (arils) add an appealing crunch that sets this salad apart, while rich, punchy Gouda cheese adds a salty, contrasting bite.

Whether you’re making a meal to impress holiday dinner guests or just want to celebrate the season during a regular weeknight dinner, this 30-minute salad is a winner.