Spinach Salad with Pears, Walnuts & Goat Cheese (Whole Foods Recipe)

When I went on my tour of Whole Foods Market I grabbed several recipes from their Holiday table in the front of the store.  One of which was for a salad that I couldn't wait to try...it called for pears, walnuts and goat cheese, and I love all of those things.  I finally tried the salad today and the combo was perfect, I loved this salad.  Michael hates goat cheese, but grudgingly admitted that when he picked around the goat cheese it was a good salad.  There are other variations, and you can visit the Whole Foods website to find other ideas for this salad.  What's your favorite salad?

Spinach Salad with Pears, Walnuts and Goat Cheese
From Whole Foods Market

Ingredients:

3 Anjou, Bosc or Comice pears

1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil

1/4 cup white wine vinegar
1 tablespoon German mustard
1 teaspoon honey
3/4 pound spinach, torn into bite-size pieces
1/2 red onion, thinly sliced
1/2 cup walnuts, toasted
4 ounces goat cheese, crumbled

Instructions:
Chop 1 pear and slice the remaining two pears.  Put chopped pear, along with oil, vinegar, mustard and honey into a blender and purée until smooth. Transfer to a bowl and stir in 2 tablespoons water, more if needed, to thin for a pourable dressing (my dressing was pourable, so I skipped water altogether). Put spinach, onion, walnuts, goat cheese, sliced pears and dressing into a large bowl and toss gently to coat. Serve immediately.

**I made the dressing ahead of time, and then threw the salad together at dinner time.  LOVE this dressing!  I had to use red wine vinegar because it's what I had on hand, but it did the trick.  I also chopped my pears into chunks instead of slicing.