This Candied Pecan and Cranberry Pear Salad is filled with tart cranberries, crisp pears, sugar candied pecans, and topped with a sweet honey vinaigrette. Delicious and beautiful for Christmas, Thanksgiving, holiday meals, or weeknight dinners!

There’s nothing like a bright and beautiful showstopping salad! It can complement any holiday, get-together, or weeknight dinner and make it so much better and elevated. But there’s no reason it shouldn’t taste just as delicious as it looks. And even better when it’s easy to make. This Candied Pecan and Cranberry Pear Salad has the best flavor combination with the sweet crunchy pecans, pears, and cranberries then a zippy bite from the gorgonzola cheese and topped off with a tangy-sweet honey vinaigrette. It’s bright, festive, and so amazingly good that you’ll want to have it with every meal.

Ingredients

Candied Pecans

• Butter– salted works well to give a little salty/sweet combination to the pecans. If you only have unsalted butter, try adding just a pinch of salt.
• Pecans– whole or halved are best.
• Brown Sugar

Salad

• Spring mix salad– this give a nice appearance with the different colors of lettuce but any type of lettuce mix would taste similar.
• Pears
• Dried cranberries
• Gorgonzola or Feta cheese– gorgonzola will give a strong almost bleu cheese flavor. Go for feta cheese if you want to keep it more mild.

Honey Vinaigrette Dressing

• Olive oil
• Apple cider vinegar– this gives a nice extra fruit flavor but you can easily switch it up with white, balsamic, or white wine vinegar for a different taste.
• Honey
• Onion– fresh minced onion really makes this dressing taste so delicious. Dried could be used in a pinch.
• Poppy seeds
• Paprika
• Salt & pepper

How to make it

This recipe is quite easy to make. All you have to do is:

Melt– butter and sugar together in a medium skillet. A cast-iron skillet would work well for this part. Once they melt and bubble slightly, add the pecans and stir until it starts to caramelize and each piece of pecan is coated. This takes around 2-3 minutes.

Cool– the pecans on parchment paper or wax paper. Once cooled, they’ll be able to break apart and are ready for the salad.

Whisk– olive oil, apple cider vinegar, honey, onion, poppy seeds, paprika, salt, and pepper together in a bowl or combine them all in an empty jelly jar with a lid and shake. Be sure it is mixed well and then set aside to allow it to marinate. The longer it marinades, the stronger the onion flavor will become.

Add– spring mix to a large bowl. Then top with pears, cranberries, gorgonzola cheese, and candied pecans.

Toss– the salad with the dressing when you are ready to serve.

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Can the salad be prepared ahead of time?

Yes, this Candied Pecan and Cranberry Pear Salad can be made up to 3 days in advance. Assemble the salad and the dressing as directed and refrigerate in air-tight containers but wait to put the dressing on the salad until you are ready to serve. The lettuce will tend to wilt the longer it remains on the salad. I also recommend storing the pecans in an air-tight container at room temperature and adding them to the salad just before serving as well. The refrigerator can tend to soften the pecans.

Do I have to make the candied pecans?

No, you do not! While the candied pecans give it a fantastic taste, the salad is still delicious with plain pecans, nuts, or no nuts at all! You can also use store-bought candied pecans as well.

More delicious salad recipes

• Strawberry Spinach Salad with Bacon Blueberries and Feta– sweet, sharp, and savory salad with a balsamic vinaigrette dressing.
• Caesar Pasta Salad– filled with  juicy tomatoes, sharp parmesan, and Caesar dressing.
• Pesto Pasta Salad– delicious pesto, tomatoes, and fresh mozzarella with rotini pasta.