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    Home » MAKE IT EASY » 30 Minutes or Less

    Pear Vinaigrette

    November 27, 2017 7 Comments

    A 10-minute pear vinaigrette for all your fall and winter salads.

    Make this Pear Vinaigrette in 10 minutes with just one pear, pear vinegar (or apple cider vinegar), mustard, and a good olive oil. It will make your salad shine!

    I would argue that you can have all the makings for a stellar salad, worthy of a James Beard award or something equally lofty, but if you dress it with some mediocre dressing you threw together at the last minute, the salad will quickly become forgettable at best, and jarring at worst.

    For example, I recently had a lentil salad at a restaurant that could have been amazing. But it missed the mark due to a tart lemon dressing that overwhelmed the flavors of the salad. It needed the rounded depth of sherry vinegar instead of lemon. This faulty pairing of a vinaigrette made the salad unforgettable for all the wrong reasons. 

    And really, that's just a crazy mistake.

    A good vinaigrette takes minutes to make, can almost always be made ahead, and keeps well in the refrigerator for a couple of weeks. There's no excuse for not having a couple good ones on hand at any time.

    So take a few minutes to whip this one up and throw it into the refrigerator. It's perfect for a winter salad of bitter greens like kale, endive, chicory, spinach, mustard greens, frisee, radicchio, or escarole. Likewise it's wonderful on Bibb or butter lettuce.

    Feel free to add some fruit. Sliced pears, apples, pomegranate seeds, persimmon chunks, and avocado work great with this vinaigrette, and toss it all together just before serving. You might just skip the rest of the meal.

    And for the record, I wouldn't use it in a lentil salad. Ever.

    Recommended Equipment For Making Pear Vinaigrette

    The pear needs to be pureed for this vinaigrette, and there are at least 4 options for doing this. I used them all. If the pear is on the firm side, an immersible blender may not give a consistent texture. There may be some small pear lumps.

    Mini-Chopper

    Hand-Held Immersible Blender

    Traditional Blender (I like this blender because of all the sizes of blender containers it includes)

    Food Processor

    My favorite approach, overall, is the Mini-chopper. It's fast, easy to pull out and easy to clean. And it totally does the job. If you decide on this one, and want to order it, use my code for a $10 discount. As a note, you need to order at least $59.95 of product to get the $10 discount. When you check out, enter following into the coupon code box:

    THEWIMPYVEGETARIAN

    The mini-chopper and hand-held immersible blender (both are part of Mealthy's Hand Blend package) are available on Amazon as well, using the links. I use one or the other every single day.

    Tips For Making Pear Vinaigrette

    I've used both Bartlett and Bosc pears to make this vinaigrette with great success. Do not use an Asian pear - they're too hard for this recipe. The pear should be ripe, but not mushy and bruised. This is not a way to use a pear ready to be tossed.

    The pear vinegar I like is B.R. Cohn's Pear Chardonnay Vinegar. But if you don't have pear vinegar, you can substitute apple cider vinegar.

    Feel free to adjust for the oil - vinegar balance you prefer by dipping a salad leaf into the dressing to taste it. Don't judge it by tasting the dressing by itself. It's always best to try it with whatever it will be served on.

    Affiliate links are included in this post, which help support the cost of running this blog.

    Make this Pear Vinaigrette in 10 minutes with just one pear, pear vinegar (or apple cider vinegar), mustard, and a good olive oil. It will make your salad shine!
    Print Recipe
    4.19 from 22 votes

    Pear Vinaigrette

    10-minute pear vinaigrette that's perfect for a winter salad. Just whirl a pear, pear vinegar, mustard, and olive oil in a blender and season to taste.
    Prep Time10 mins
    Total Time10 mins
    Course: Salad
    Cuisine: American
    Keyword: pear vinaigrette
    Servings: 8
    Calories: 90kcal
    Author: The Wimpy Vegetarian

    Equipment

    Mealthy Handblend (chopper and power whisk attachments)

    Ingredients

    • 1 ripe pear peeled and cored, coarsely chopped
    • 5 tablespoons pear vinegar
    • 1 teaspoon Dijon mustard
    • ½ teaspoon kosher salt
    • ¼ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
    • 5 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil

    Instructions

    • Throw everything EXCEPT the olive oil into a mini-chopper, blender, or the bowl of the food processor fitted with a metal blade. Whirl around enough to break up the pear. 
    • Add the olive oil and whirl to completely emulsify, about 1 minute or less.

    Notes

    Feel free to adjust for the oil - vinegar balance you prefer by dipping a salad leaf into the dressing to taste it. Don't judge it by only tasting the dressing. It's always best to try it with whatever it will be served on.
    Recipe makes 1 cup or a little less.
    Calories were calculated using the VeryWell Fit nutrition calculator for 8 servings (2 tablespoons per serving).
    If you don't have pear vinegar, substitute apple cider vinegar. The pear vinegar I like is B.R. Cohn's Pear Chardonnay Vinegar.
    I've used both Bartlett and Bosc pears to make this vinaigrette with great success. But do not use an Asian pear - they're too hard for this recipe.
    The calories assume 6 servings of approximately 2 tablespoons or a little less each.

    Nutrition

    Calories: 90kcal

    Make this Pear Vinaigrette in 10 minutes with just one pear, pear vinegar (or apple cider vinegar), mustard, and a good olive oil. It will make your salad shine!

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    Reader Interactions

    Comments

    1. Rita

      November 28, 2017 at 3:40 pm

      You are SO right, Susan. Salad dressings can make or break a good salad. Where do you get pear vinegar?

      Reply
    2. Rita

      November 28, 2017 at 3:44 pm

      You are SO right, Susan, salad dressings can make or break a good salad. Where do you get pear vinegar? What's the acidity? That makes a big difference. Rosie and I did a post all about salad dressings: http://getcookingsimply.com/saladdressings/

      Reply
      • The Wimpy Vegetarian

        November 28, 2017 at 8:52 pm

        I've been getting my pear vinegar at Mill Valley Market. I think Whole Foods carries it too, which I need to research now that I don't live in Mill Valley anymore, lol. I checked the acidity, and it's not listed on their label. So I went to their web site, since your comment made me curious. It says there that the acidity level is 6.5%. It does indeed make a difference!

        Reply
    3. Gisela duVigneau

      October 10, 2021 at 7:49 pm

      5 stars
      I made it in my Ninja Single Serve and it was absolutely perfect, even though I could not find a pear vinegar in my supermarket. Then I ruined it by adding a little more vinegar. I hope to correct my mistake by adding a little more pear.

      Reply
      • The Wimpy Vegetarian

        October 12, 2021 at 9:59 am

        5 stars
        I was able to get pear vinegar when we lived in the Bay Area, but you're right - I've never seen it here. I typically now just use a champagne vinegar, sometimes citrus, as I can find that here (or it's possible I get that in Reno). If you can add a little olive oil to rebalance it when there's too much vinegar, along with a little pear.

        Reply
    4. Sheri

      November 22, 2021 at 6:16 am

      We made pear vinegar . How can we turn it into a dressing/vinaigrette?

      Reply
      • The Wimpy Vegetarian

        November 22, 2021 at 9:20 pm

        5 stars
        You can either use the recipe above or make an even simpler vinaigrette using 1 part pear vinegar to 3 parts good quality olive oil, and season to taste. Depending on the acidity of the pear vinegar, you may need to add a little more olive oil.

        Reply

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