By: Stephanie Horton, Dietetic Intern, Nutrition and Fitness Center
Video By: Alan Wong

Sargent Choice offers students healthy meals aimed at satisfying both their taste buds and their nutritional needs. And now Sargent offers these fabulous recipes online in video demonstrations! Join Executive Chef Walter Dunphy in the Sargent Choice kitchen while he assembles one of our favorite dishes: Pear Carpaccio.

What can be better than fruits and vegetables in a single dish?! This dish incorporates fresh, juicy pears, arugula and Boston Bibb lettuce, truffle olive oil, balsamic vinegar, and is finished with aged Gouda cheese. Are you hungry yet?!

This quick and easy recipe can be enjoyed year-round, and is a perfect lunch to pack when you’re in a hurry. All it takes is a few minutes, and viola, you will be an expert at Pear Carpaccio!

This video initially appeared on BU Today.

How do you manage to get your 5 servings of fruits and vegetables per day? Any tips?

Pear Carpaccio Recipe
Ingredients:

• 3 pears
• 2 heads Boston Bibb lettuce
• 6 cups microgreens (whatever is fresh; collect varying colors and flavors)
• 4 teaspoons 25-year-old Modena balsamic vinegar (substitute with a half-reduction of regular balsamic vinegar if necessary)
• 2 teaspoons white truffle oil
• 2 ounces aged Gouda, shaved
• 1 lemon, juiced
• 6 tablespoons water
• Maine sea salt
• Freshly ground black pepper

Directions:
Place the juice of the lemon and the water in a nonreactive bowl. Core the pears, cut in half, and thinly slice with a very sharp knife. Lightly toss the pear slices in the bowl with the lemon-water mixture to keep the pears from oxidizing and turning brown.

Clean and dry the lettuce, discarding any discolored leaves. On chilled dinner plates, layer lettuce leaves in a fan, pushing them down as flat as possible.

Layer and fan the pears in a circle over the Bibb, leaving a nice green rim of the lettuce showing.

Place the microgreens in a separate bowl (handle the greens gingerly, as they are frail). Add truffle oil and lightly toss.
Arrange a nice bundle of greens in the center of each plate, drizzle the balsamic vinegar over the pears, and season with salt and pepper. Shave the cheese, arrange over the pears evenly, and serve.

Serves 4
Approximate preparation time: 10 minutes

Nutrition facts per serving:
190 calories
6.8 grams (g) total fat (2.8 g saturated fat)
28 g carbohydrates (9 g fiber)
6 g protein
170 milligrams (mg) sodium
(Percent of daily vitamins)
Vitamin A 70%
Vitamin C 40%
Calcium 15%
Iron 8%