Cherry Pecan Salad with Blue Cheese and Cherry Vinaigrette

Name: Cherry Pecan Salad with Blue Cheese and Cherry Vinaigrette
Ingredients: Salad greens (your choice), washed and dried; Fresh cherries, pitted and halved. We used both Bing for color and Rainier for its more complex flavor.; Toasted pecans; Blue cheese, either crumbled or sliced marbled jack; Lucero Coratina EVOO; Amarena Cherry Balsamic Vinegar; salt and pepper to taste

Mixed baby greens are adorned with fresh cherry halves, toasted pecans, and thin slices of blue cheese on a small French porcelain plate.

Inspiration

Now that cherries are in season, we're sharing a salad inspired by one we enjoyed while living in Southern Oregon's Rogue Valley, home of Harry & David's Royal Riviera® Pears and internationally lauded Rogue River Blue Cheese from Rogue Creamery®. Typically accompanied by walnuts and a vinaigrette, this "Rogue Salad" is terrific as a large dinner salad or as a side dish.

Celebrating Cherry Season

We've put together a similar combination of greens, fresh fruit, and nuts, however, this time highlighting fresh cherries along with appropriate pairings.

Lucero Coratina Extra Virgin Olive Oil is a robust oil, and professional tasters and culinary enthusiasts have both remarked that there is a dark cherry sensation to its fruitiness.
Our Amarena Cherry Balsamic Vinegar highlights one of the darlings of the cherry world. The Amarena variety is prized for its dark cherry aroma and flavor. It is complex with sensations of cedar, roses, almonds and spices.

Read on for more, and please enjoy!

Liz & Donald

PS: A special note to all of our readers who are "grazers"--we see you! Donald and I ate quite a few "lettuce roll ups" standing in the kitchen during our practice and photography sessions. A cherry half, pecan half, and sliver of cheese wrapped in a single leaf with a drizzle of vinaigrette popped into your mouth is immensely satisfying.

Chopped romaine lettuce is dressed with halved fresh cherries, toasted pecans, sliced blue marble jack cheese, and a vinaigrette

Cherry Pecan Salad with Blue Cheese and Cherry Vinaigrette

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We made this salad for ourselves twice this month, once with a "spring mix" / mesclun and once as a chopped salad using romaine, both pictured above.

Ingredients

Salad greens (your choice), washed and dried
Fresh cherries, pitted and halved. We used both Bing for color and Rainier for its more complex flavor.
Toasted pecans
Blue cheese, either crumbled or sliced marbled jack
Lucero Coratina EVOO
Amarena Cherry Balsamic Vinegar
salt and pepper to taste

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Directions

Salad

Prepare all raw ingredients in the ratios you prefer

Vinaigrette

Mix two parts Coratina olive oil with. one part Amarena Cherry Balsamic Vinegar.
Whisk to emulsify and season with salt and pepper to taste.
Either dress and toss the salad as depicted in our first image, or compose individual plates and drizzle the vinaigrette, if preferred.

Recipe Note

Although we did not include it in the photography and ingredient list, grilled steak would be a stellar inclusion, and move this recipe into the dinner (or lunch) salad category. Coratina and steak is a classic pairing!

Here is a quick note about the blue cheese depicted: we had intended to pick up a traditionally crumbly blue cheese, however, in our haste purchased blue marble jack cheese. While reading about the maker, Sonoma Jack, learned that the founder in 1931 was the originator of Rogue Creamery in Oregon! It was a happy accident as it still added the classic blue cheese tang we were seeking, yet was lower salt, and made unexpected and poetic tie in to our fond memories of the Rogue Salad from my old Harry & David days - Liz

Cherry Pecan Salad with Blue Cheese and Cherry Vinaigrette

Inspiration

Celebrating Cherry Season

Cherry Pecan Salad with Blue Cheese and Cherry Vinaigrette

Ingredients

Directions

Salad

Vinaigrette

Recipe Note

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