Spinach and Romaine Salad With Pear, Gorgonzola and Toasted Macadamia Nuts
Maybe due to marketing, I’ve always thought macadamia nuts were from Hawaii but they are also native to the rainforest regions of North South Wales and Queensland in Australia. One of its common names “queen of nuts” says it all. They are buttery and whatever you put them in becomes something delicious just like everything you make out of chocolate. People shun nuts from their diets because of their fat content but the monounsaturated oil, oleic acid omega-9, in macadamia nuts is the same fatty acid found in olive oil which is recommended for heart patients. The oil in nuts is good for your cardiovascular system and for your brain. You just don’t want to eat too many.
Blue cheese is a category of cheese that contain stripes or spots of the mold Penicillium. Blue cheese is made from cow, sheep or goat’s milk and the Penicillium glaucum mold. Gorgonzola cheese is a specific type of blue cheese made from unskimmed cow’s or goat’s milk and the Penicillium glaucoma mold. Molds that produce mycotoxins and aflatoxins are considered toxic. But the blue cheese mold does not contain these toxins because the environment created by this mold, based on moisture, temperature, density, acidity, etc., does not allow for these toxins. Historians believe blue cheese was discovered by accident when the cheese was being aged in caves favorable to the mold. Gorgonzola has been produced in the Italian town of Gorgonzola since 879 AD. Today blue cheese is produced in the Northern Italian regions of Peidmont and Lombardy.
Spinach and Romaine Salad With Pear, Gorgonzola and Toasted Macadamia Nuts
Salad Ingredients
- baby spinach
- romane
- sweet white onion, sliced very thin*
- persian cucumbers, sliced
- white mushrooms, sliced
- gorgonzola cheese, crumbled
- dry roasted macadamia nuts, cut in halves or fourths
- bosc or crispy asian pear or yellow pear that is not overly ripe
*You can soak the onions for 10 minutes or pickle them for 15 minutes to temper the bite of the raw onion and possibly make them easier to digest if you have problems with raw onions.
Dressing Ingredients
- 1/2 cup grape seed oil or light olive oil
- 1/4 cup white balsamic vinegar
- 1 teaspoons dijon mustard
- 1 tablespoon honey
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1/2 teaspoon pepper
Instructions
Heat a skillet and add the nuts and toast them until some edges are lightly browned. Let cool.
Put all dressing ingredients in a jar and shake well. Assemble salad ingredients on a plate and drizzle with the dressing.
