Frisée Salad with Pears

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Elevate your side salad game with this frisée salad, featuring creamy blue cheese and crisp pears.

As someone who eats lunchtime salads multiple times a week, I always want to change things up so I don’t get bored. 

Whether that means making my own green goddess dressing or adding some leftover roast chicken, the possibilities are nearly endless when it comes to changing up your salad routine.

Frisée salad is a great option if you want to try something different from your standard spinach or iceberg salad, and this salad recipe is so easy to whip up.

It’s topped with crunchy walnuts, creamy blue cheese, sweet pears, and a homemade vinaigrette dressing. It’s perfect both for entertaining or for a simple lunch by yourself.

What is frisée?

You might not be used to frisée (pronounced free-ZAY). It’s also known as curly, or curled, endive, though it looks more like leaf lettuce than the tightly packed, oval-shaped endive.

It’s in the chicory family of greens along with radiccio. Frisée is often found chopped up and used in those prepacked bags of mixed greens, or featured on a restaurant menu.

If you’ve never had it before, I encourage you to give it a try!

Ingredients for frisée salad

Full list of ingredients including quantities is located in the recipe card.

You’ll need:

Frisée – At least one head of frisee, depending on how big it is. If you’re only making salad for one person instead of side salads, you can just stick with one. But I like to buy two to have extra.

Walnuts – Chopped walnuts add a great texture to the salad as well as flavor. You can toast them in a saute pan or keep them as they are.

Crumbled blue cheese – For rich flavor we add crumbled blue cheese. If you’re not a fan of blue cheese (or are allergic), you can just leave it out or swap in a different kind of cheese. Feta or goat cheese crumbles are good substitutes.

Pears – Pears complement all the flavors in the salad. Plus they make for a really pretty presentation!

Champagne vinegar – You’ll need champagne vinegar to make the salad dressing. Champagne vinegar has a light, mild flavor. If you don’t have any on hand, you can use white wine vinegar instead.

Raspberry vinegar or red wine vinegar can also be used, but it will tint the dressing slightly and give a bit of a stronger flavor.

Olive oil – Use a good tasting olive oil for your dressing.

Dijon mustard – Dijon mustard is a essential ingredient and salad dressings. It helps bind ingredients together to make a very luscious dressing. You could also use your favorite whole grain mustard.

Honey – Just a bit of honey is added for sweetness to the dressing. Don’t overdo it! Make sure you use a regular clover honey not wildflower honey, which can be very overpowering sometimes.

Shallot – if you don’t have any shallots, you can use a small amount of minced white onion or one clove of garlic.

Salt and pepper – Add seasoning to taste in the dressing. I also like to have cracked black pepper on hand for serving.

How to make this recipe

Make sure your frisée is clean, giving it a rinse in the sink and removing any dirt or bugs.

Chop off the stem end and chop or rip apart the leaves into pieces. Pat the leaves dry with a clean kitchen towel, or spin in a salad spinner.

Add the frisée, walnuts, and blue cheese to a large bowl. Use a pair of tongs or salad servers to toss and combine.

Then, make the vinaigrette recipe, which comes together easily. In a small bowl, whisk together olive oil, vinegar, mustard, honey, and shallot until emulsified and slightly thickened. Add salt and pepper to taste.

Pour half of the dressing over the salad and toss to coat. If desired, add more of the dressing or keep the rest set aside for serving.

To cut the pears, slice in half vertically down the middle. Use a melon baller to cleanly cut out the seeds and core. Slice each pear half vertically or horizontally, depending on the desired size.

You can add the pears to the bowl before serving, or add them when you plate the salad.

Divide the salad between four plates and fan out half a pear on each for a lovely presentation. Serve immediately.

Recipe suggestions

Other great additions to the salad would be some chopped cooked bacon, or a poached egg. Using both turns this into a classic Lyonnaise salad!

Using warm bacon lardons or cooked egg will wilt the frisée a little, so add them just before serving. 

You can also add fresh herbs like finely minced chives or a bit of parsley.

For more crunch, add homemade croutons or buttery breadcrumbs.

Want to swap the pears for another fruit? Use sliced apples, segmented oranges, or pomegranate arils.

What to serve with frisée salad

Make this salad the starter for lemon chicken or steak roulade.

It also goes great with seafood dishes like pan seared scallops.

Pair it up with pasta e fagioli or chicken and gnocchi soup or simply add on a few toasted slices of French bread for a light meal.

You’ll love the combination of flavors in this fresh salad!