It’s been a while since the South Arm Community Kitchen meet. The reason is because the coordinator of the Richmond Community Kitchen, Minoo was away on vacation for three weeks. Minoo had a great time in Germany with families and friends. She is fully charged for the coming winter.
Minoo started off the South Arm Community Kitchen with four recipes. The first item is an Autumn Salad featuring pear, cranberries and pumpkin seeds. Here are some tips on buying pears. Buy pears that are unripe to ensure they arrive home without any bruises as ripen pears are soft and easily bruised. An unripe pear can take anywhere from 3 to 7 days to ripen on the counter. To speed up the process, place pears in a paper bag along with an apple. Close tightly and check for ripeness in 1 to 3 days. Store ripened pears in the fridge.
This Autumn Salad is adapted from Alive Magazine and it makes 4 servings. You can easily doubled the recipes to serve 8. The goat cheese lends some saltiness to this lightly tangy salad. It’s a great way to start a meal.
Ingredients
Salad:
- 8 cups (2L) baby greens
- 2 large ripe pears, cored and thinly sliced
- 2 oounces (50g) goat cheese, crumbled
- 1/4 cup (60ml) unsalted raw pumpkin seeds
- 1/4 cup (60ml) dried cranberries
Dressing:
- 3 tablespoons (45ml) balsamic vinegar
- 1 tablespoon + 1 teaspoon (20ml) extra-virgin olive oil
- 2 teaspoons (10ml) Dijon mustard
- 2 teaspoons (10ml) pure maple syrup
- pinch of cracked black pepper
Instructions
 Whisk together vinegar, olive oil, Dijon mustard, maple syrup and cracked pepper in a small bowl. This dressing can be made up to one day in advance. Store covered in fridge. |
 Place the baby greens on a large platter or distribute them equally into four salad plates. Sprinkle with pumpkin seeds, and dried cranberries. |
 Arrange sliced pears on top of the greens. Crumbled goat cheese on the salad. |
 Drizzle the dressing over the salad evenly and serve. |