Winter Salad for the Challenged

As a first course for Christmas dinner, I made a salad with winter fruits, soft cheese and crunchy almonds. (The main course was a lemon, rosemary and thyme roast chicken.) The most challenging part of cooking dinner this time was making sure all the picky eaters liked the food. At the table were a conservative potatoes&veg-type, a gluten and (cow's) milk intolerant, a vegetarian and an I-only-like-five-types-of-veg (the worst!). It all worked out though: everyone finished their plate and seemed to enjoy it!


Ingredients
1 head of romaine lettuce (or 2 baby gems)
2 pears
3 hands of dried cranberries
2 hands of almonds
50 grams of soft goat's cheese
1 large lemon
1 tbsp French mustard
olive oil
2 tbsp poppyseeds

Heat a frying pan (don't add oil). Put in the almonds and toast them until they're hot. Put aside in a bowl with the dried cranberries. Chop the lettuce, wash it, dry it. Put in a large bowl. Peel the pears and slice them into bite-sized pieces. Add to the lettuce. Crumble the goat's cheese and put it in with the lettuce and pears. Add the cranberries and almonds. Mix. Now transfer to your guests' plates.

For the dressing, whisk together the juice of the lemon, the mustard, olive oil (use a ratio of about 1:2 for the lemon juice / olive oil) and poppy seeds. Spoon the dressing over your guest's salads, to taste.

My inspiration for this salad can be found here.