Pear Salad with Cottage Cheese
This Southern Pear Salad with Fresh Pears is a fresh, modern take on a vintage salad recipe, swapping fresh fruit and cottage cheese for the traditional canned pears and mayo. Made with just 5 ingredients and ready in about 10 minutes, it has that perfect balance of sweet, creamy, and savory.
Servings: 4 servings
Calories: 1serving
Ingredients
- 2 fresh bartlett or anjou pears
- Lettuce leaves (Iceberg or Bibb)
- ½ cup cottage cheese
- 4 tablespoons shredded Cheddar cheese
- 2 fresh Bing or dark sweet cherries
Instructions
- Peel the pears. Use an apple corer and remove core, then slice in half. Or, just slice in half, then use a knife or spoon to scoop out the core.
- Place the pear halves on lettuce leaves on a platter or individual plates. Spoon 2 tablespoons of the cottage cheese into the “bowl” of each pear.
- Sprinkle one tablespoon Cheddar cheese on top of the cottage cheese.
- Remove the pit from the cherries with an olive or cherry pitter. You can also carefully slice them in half, cutting to-but-not-through the cherry pit in the middle. When you knife touches the pit in the middle, stop and twist the cherry. Carefully remove the pit from the side where it remained.
- Place a cherry half on top of the Cheddar cheese on each salad.
Notes
- Safely core the pear! If you have an apple corer, it makes quick work of removing the center cleanly. If not, a small spoon or paring knife works just fine, just scoop gently to keep the pear halves intact.
- Choose perfectly ripe pears. You want pears that are soft but not mushy. If they’re too firm, they won’t have that juicy sweetness; too soft, and they won’t hold their shape!
- Balance the flavors. This salad works because of the sweet, salty, and creamy balance. Don’t skip the cheddar! It really ties everything together.
- Serve fresh for the best texture. This cottage cheese salad with pears is best assembled right before serving. It keeps the lettuce crisp and the pears looking their prettiest! If you do make it in advance, brush the fresh pear halves with a little lemon juice to keep them from turning a little brownish.
