Spring Salad with Poached Pears, Sweet Peppers and Shredded Chicken

Sometimes it just fells good to have a delicious salad! All I did was buy fresh vegetables and put them together in a unique way with things I already had in my pantry. Here is my spring salad, although light and refreshing, it's very fulfilling. 

Recipe

fresh spinach

fresh romaine lettuce, torn into bite size pieces

2 pears, poached (recipe follows)

1 red bell pepper, roasted (recipe follows)

1 can or 2 fresh mandarin oranges, peeled

2 cups cashews, toasted

2 chicken breasts, roasted or rotisserie, cut into slices

poppy seed dressing

Wash and trim spinach and romaine, toss together and set aside. Then in a small sauce pan on medium heat, add cashews and lightly toast. With the spinach and romaine add poached pears, mandarin oranges and red bell pepper. Add cashews and top with roasted or rotisserie chicken breast. Top with your favorite dressing. One of mine is poppy seed, but you can add a simple lemon or raspberry vinaigrette.

Poached Pear Recipe

2 pears, peeled with stem intact

cloves

2 tbsp butter

1 1/2 cups white wine, specially a Riesling or Gewurztraminer

1 cup apple juice 

water

In a small or medium size pot on medium heat add butter to melt. Peel pears leaving the stem intact and place 1 or 2 whole cloves in each pear. Add pears to butter and just before the butter starts to turn a light toasty brown add wine and apple juice. Then add filtered water until the top of the pears are just covered. Put a lid on the pot and let pears poach for 30 minutes. Don't let the liquid boil and cook pears until tender, but not falling apart. Take pears out of the liquid and set aside to cool. Cut pear into thin slices. The core should pull away easily as you begin to cut slices.

Roasted Red Bell Peppers

Recipe

Whole Red Bell Peppers, washed 

Olive oil, optional 

On the high heat of a barbeque grill or an indoor grill place whole red bell peppers. Let the peppers cook, blackening the skin on each side. The peppers will look completely burned, but it's suppose to look that way. Place in a large bowl, cover tightly and set aside. The steam from the peppers will help the skin break away from the meat of the pepper. With one hand holding the stem of the bell pepper, use your other hand to peel away the blackened skin. Discard the skin and seeds, cut and enjoy!