Fall Fruit Harvest Salad

Pears, persimmons, and pomegranates, all the quintessential fall fruits, with Holiday spiced pecans and a sweet lemony maple vinaigrette. It’s a let’s-take-all-the-fruits-that-are-in-season-and-make-a-deliciously-colorful-and-festive-salad-out-of-them kinda situation!

Please meet my welcome relief from the overindulgence of the Holidays: this Fall Fruit Harvest Salad. It’s a fresh seasonal salad party!

Why this Recipe Works:

• The bitterness in the frisee and radicchio is balanced by the sweetness of the fruits and the maple in the dressing, as well as the creaminess of the burrata.
• The spiced pecans add some much loved Holiday flair.
• Tart pomegranates add pop and color to each bite.
• Burrata makes life better. Period.
• There’s a mix of flavors and textures that together are much greater than the sum of their parts.

Whoeva said there ain't fresh fruit in the winter sure didn’t live in Cali! But for reals, there’s fresh fruit year round, just different types, and of course not as many as during the summer. Let’s celebrate the kinds we do have this time of year with this hearty, sweet, and savory salad for these upcoming chilly month.

Pears, Persimmons and Pomegranates…OH MY!

How to Make this Fall Fruit Harvest Salad:

• Preheat oven. Mix spices, sugar and olive oil for pecans together and coat pecans. Bake.
• Whisk dressing ingredients together.
• Wash the frisee and radicchio
• Wash & cut all fruits. And de-seed pomegranate.
• Arrange all parts of salad on a platter, top with burrata

Not all Burrata is created equal. A grocery chain, that I shall graciously not name, recently started carrying their own brand of burrata, priced at about 50% of the other burrata out there and I was stoked!!! Within 2 months the quality went massively down and instead of an ooey gooey creamylicious filled ball they were consistently hard with about 20% of my purchases actually being rancid! I gave them a chance for almost 6 months (hey, at that price point I kept being hopeful…which ended up looking like me always buying extra to make up for the rancid ones). Burrata is pricey but… the good stuff is def worth if ya can swing it!

Cooks Tips:

• Buy the best damn local organic fruit you can find.
• Cutting with a dull knife is more dangerous than a sharp one! Friends, keep this in mind for thinly slicing the fruit.
• Choose pears and persimmons on the firmer side so they’ll cute nicely.
• If cutting pears much in advance, squeeze them with some lemon to keep from browning.
• Not all Burrata is created equal. Buy the good stuff. See rant on this above.
• De-seeding a pomegranate is deliciously messy ~ do it over the sink get in the sink! Meditate. Rejoice in the fruits of the fall/winter.
• Pecans can be made up to 1 week in advance and stored in an airtight container. Dressing can be made up to 3 days in advance and stored in the fridge.

Have ya tried this recipe? I’d love to hear about it and see it too! Please leave a comment below and take a pic and tag it on Instagram with #wavesinthekitchen. You can also follow me on Facebook, Instagram and Pinterest to see more colorfully delicious food and all sorts of awesome adventures!

Let’s make waves in the kitchen!

Print Recipe

5 from 3 votes

Fall Fruit Harvest Salad

Pears, persimmons, and pomegranates, all the quintessential fall fruits, with Holiday spiced pecans and a sweet lemony maple vinaigrette. It’s a let’s-take-all-the-fruits-that-are-in-season-and-make-a-deliciously-colorful-and-festive-salad-out-of-them kinda situation!

Prep Time15 minutes mins

Total Time15 minutes mins

Course: Salad

Cuisine: Californian

Servings: 10

Author: Daniela Gerson

Ingredients

For the Salad

• 2 heads frisee cored and trimmed torn into bite sized pieces
• 1 small head radicchio halved, cored and cut into 1-inch strips
• 4 balls burrata 8 oz/ball
• 3 pears I like to use a mix of different types and colors
• 3 persimmons
• 1 pomegranate deseeded

For the Candied Pecans

• 1 cup pecans
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 2 tablespoons light brown sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon paprika
• 1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
• 1/8 teaspoon cayenne pepper
• pinch ground cloves

For the Lemony Maple Vinaigrette

• 1/4 cup olive oil
• 2 zest & juice lemons
• 2 tablespoons maple syrup
• 1 teaspoon dijon mustard
• 1 shallot minced
• kosher salt to taste
• pepper to taste

Instructions

For the Candied Pecans

• Preheat oven to 325°F. Whisk together brown sugar, cinnamon, salt, nutmeg, and cayenne in a medium bowl. Add in melted butter and stir until well combined. Add in pecans and toss to thoroughly coat nuts with sugar mixture. Spread pecans onto a foil lined baking sheet. Transfer to oven and bake for 15 minutes. Remove pecans from oven and let cool to room temperature and then roughly chop.

For the Lemony Maple Vinaigrette

• In a medium bowl, whisk together shallot, maple syrup, mustard, lemon juice and zest. Whisking constantly, drizzle in remaining 1/4 cup (60 ml) olive oil. Season to taste with salt and pepper.

For the Salad

• Arrange frisee & radicchio on serving platter and toss with salad dressing, to taste.
• Arrange fruit and burrata and top, sprinkle with pomegranate seeds and pecans. Drizzle more dressing. Enjoy.

Notes

• Buy the best damn local organic fruit you can find.
• Cutting with a dull knife is more dangerous than a sharp one! Friends, keep this in mind for thinly slicing the fruit.
• Choose pears and persimmons on the firmer side so they’ll cute nicely.
• If cutting pears much in advance, squeeze them with some lemon to keep from browning.
• Not all Burrata is created equal. Buy the good stuff. See rant on this above.
• De-seeding a pomegranate is deliciously messy ~ do it over the sink get in the sink! Meditate. Rejoice in the fruits of the fall/winter.
• Pecans can be made up to 1 week in advance and stored in an airtight container. Dressing can be made up to 3 days in advance and stored in the fridge.