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 or candied pecans; Blue cheese, either crumbled or sliced marbled jack; Lucero Ascolano EVOO; Amarena Cherry Balsamic Vinegar; salt and pepper to taste

First published 1 June 2023, we've updated it Spring 2024 changing the oil, lettuce, cheese, and how we treat the pecans.

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 Ascolano Extra Virgin Olive Oil, popular for its fruity aroma and flavor.
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.

Green salad using spring mesclun lettuce, blue jack cheese, cherries and pecans

Green salad using romaine, pecans, blue jack cheese and fresh cherries

For 2024 we updated the salad greens to butter lettuce, and used the restaurant technique to core, wash, and dry the lettuce so the shape stays intact, then dip the entire front to apply the vinaigrette. The blue cheese this time is a gorgonzola with a satisfying crumble, and the pecans have been lightly candied.

Donald dips an entire head of butter lettuce into a large bowl coated with vinaigrette

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.

Cherry Pecan Salad with Blue Cheese and Cherry Vinaigrette

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We made this salad for ourselves twice during cherry season in 2023, 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 or candied pecans
Blue cheese, either crumbled or sliced marbled jack
Lucero Ascolano 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 Ascolano olive oil with one part Amarena Cherry Balsamic Vinegar.
Whisk to emulsify and season with salt and pepper to taste.
Either dress the salad as depicted in the “dip it” method, 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.

Here is a quick note about the blue cheese depicted in 2023 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