Recipe Rehab: Holiday Pear Salad with Carmelized Pecans

Our weekly feature, Recipe Rehab, takes a recipe -- sometimes basic, sometimes decadent and sometimes just plain unhealthy -- and turns it into a scrumptious and healthy dish, pumped up with nutrition. Sometimes all it takes is a few alterations to prepare a dish that would make even your nutritionist proud.

In my house, the holidays aren't complete without the arrival of a box of Harry and David's famous gold foil-wrapped pears from a good friend of mine. It's her signature gift and I'm more than happy to be the lucky recipient of this juicy, crispy fruit. If pears find a way to your holiday fruit basket, how about featuring them in a holiday salad? This elegant recipe is a festive switch from your standard garden variety greens and is perfect for entertaining. But take heed, most typical pear salads are heavy on the fat -- oil-based dressing, pecans, blue cheese -- but this Recipe Rehab is a perfect example of how simply reducing the amount of some high fat ingredients can still produce a dish that rivals the original in flavor.

Ingredients:
1/4 cup sugar
2 tablespoons water, divided
1/2 cup chopped pecans, lightly toasted
2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
1 garlic clove, minced
1 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
4 cups arugula
2 heads Boston lettuce (about 4 cups)
3 bosc pears, cored, diced
1/3 cup chopped green onions
1/4 cup crumbled blue cheese

Directions
Lightly spray cookie sheet with vegetable oil spray; set aside. In small saucepan, bring sugar and 1 tablespoon water to boil. Continue to cook over medium-high heat without stirring until mixture turns golden, about 10 minutes. Remove from heat. Stir in pecans; spread in single layer on prepared cookie sheet. Let stand until cool, then break into pieces. In cup, whisk together olive oil, remaining water, lemon juice, garlic, salt, and pepper until thoroughly combined. In large serving bowl, tear arugula and Boston lettuce into strips. Add pears, green onions, cheese and caramelized pecan pieces. Drizzle dressing over salad; toss to coat. Makes 6 to 8 servings.

Rehab Rundown
For this rehab, we:

• Reduced the amount of pecan halves from 1 cup to 1/2 cup. To extend the flavor and crunch, we chopped the nuts. Since the amount of pecans was halved, we also reduced by half the amount of sugar and water used to caramelize them.

• Reduced the oil from 1/4 cup to 2 tablespoons. To compensate for some of the volume, we added 1 tablespoon water.

• Reduced the blue cheese from 1/2 cup to 1/4 cup.

Results were better than expected. Reducing the amount of nuts and cheese proved to be just enough to cut the fat by more than half. Reduced to 12 grams of fat per serving, it's sure to impress family and friends.

Rehab Reveal
Based on 1 serving ( 1/7 of recipe)

Pear Salad with Caramelized Pecans		Adapted
Calories	314	185
Fat	22 g	12 g
Carbohydrate	28 g	20 g
Sodium	473 mg	405 mg
Fiber	4 g	3 g
Cholesterol	7 mg	4 mg
Calories from fat	61%	55%