---
title: "Pear & Cucumber Salad"
description: "A crunchy, no-cook salad that leans sweet and savoury at the same time. Pear and cucumber keep it cold and juicy, cheddar and toasted pecans give it enough substance to sit next to anything off the grill, and a lemon-honey dressing with a pinch of chilli stops it tipping into fruit-salad…"
category: "Salads"
serves: "4 as a side"
prep: "15 mins"
author: "Thomas Chaplin"
site: "Recipe Book"
url: "https://chaplinkitchen.com/r/pear-and-cucumber-salad/"
datePublished: "2026-09-09T12:36:41+01:00"
dateModified: "2026-09-10T11:08:38+01:00"
---

# Pear & Cucumber Salad

A crunchy, no-cook salad that leans sweet and savoury at the same time. Pear and cucumber keep it cold and juicy, cheddar and toasted pecans give it enough substance to sit next to anything off the grill, and a lemon-honey dressing with a pinch of chilli stops it tipping into fruit-salad territory. Ten minutes of chopping and nothing else.

**Category:** Salads · **Serves:** 4 as a side · **Prep:** 15 mins

**Recipe URL:** https://chaplinkitchen.com/r/pear-and-cucumber-salad/

## Ingredients

- 2 pears _(diced)_
- 1 cucumber _(chopped)_
- 65g cheddar cheese _(cubed)_
- 25g roasted pecans _(roughly chopped)_
- 30g raisins
- Fresh chives _(to taste)_
- 1 1/2 tbsp fresh lemon juice
- 1 tbsp honey
- 2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
- 1/2 tsp flaky salt
- 1/4 tsp black pepper
- 1 pinch red pepper flakes

## Method

1. **Make the dressing.** Whisk the lemon juice, honey and olive oil together in the bottom of a large serving bowl until the honey has loosened and the dressing looks glossy. Stir the raisins through it and leave them to sit while you chop.
2. **Chop everything.** Dice the pears and chop the cucumber into pieces of about the same size, cube the cheddar, and roughly chop the pecans. Snip the chives.
3. **Toss the salad.** Tip the pears, cucumber, cheddar and pecans into the bowl on top of the raisins, add the flaky salt, black pepper and red pepper flakes, and toss until everything is coated.
4. **Scatter and serve.** Scatter the chives over the top and serve while the pear is still crisp.

## Notes

- Dressing the bowl first means one less thing to wash, and the lemon in it keeps the diced pear from browning while you chop everything else.
- Firm pears hold their shape best — Conference or Bosc rather than anything soft enough to eat over the sink.
- A mature cheddar earns its place here; a mild one disappears against the pear and the honey.
- The raisins are for chew rather than more sweetness — the honey and the pears cover that — so 30g is enough to catch one every few forkfuls. Ten minutes in the dressing plumps them and stops them drinking the juice out of the salad later.
- If the cucumber is a watery one, halve it lengthways and scrape the seeds out before chopping.
- The pecans soften once they are in the dressing, so hold them back and scatter them over at the table if you are making it ahead.
- Best within an hour of tossing. It keeps overnight, but the pear gives up its juice and the crunch goes with it.
- Blue cheese or feta instead of the cheddar both work, walnuts stand in for the pecans, and golden sultanas or dried cranberries for the raisins.