Grilled Pear, Gouda & Cheddar Sandwiches
with Lemony Arugula & Pecan Salad
- Soy
- Wheat
- Milk
- Tree Nuts
Upgrade your run-of-the-mill grilled cheese by adding sweet pear and nutty gouda to the mix. You’ll cook the pear until lightly softened, then layer it onto sourdough slices along with gouda and cheddar. Toast in a buttery pan until golden and melty, and serve with a lemony arugula and pecan salad on the side (all in a quick 20 minutes!).
Ingredients
1 unit
Pear
1 unit
Shallot
1 unit
Lemon
2 teaspoon
Honey
4 slice
Sourdough Bread
(Contains: Soy, Wheat)
2 slice
Gouda Cheese
(Contains: Milk)
½ cup
White Cheddar Cheese
(Contains: Milk)
2 ounce
Arugula
½ ounce
Pecans
(Contains: Tree Nuts)
Not included in your delivery
Salt
Pepper
1 teaspoon
Cooking Oil
½ teaspoon
Sugar
3 tablespoon
Butter
(Contains: Milk)
2 tablespoon
Olive Oil
Nutrition Values
Utensils
Cooking Steps
• Wash and dry produce. • Quarter, core, and thinly slice pear. Halve, peel, and finely chop half the shallot (whole shallot for 4 servings). Quarter lemon.
• Heat a drizzle of oil and 1 TBSP butter (2 TBSP for 4 servings) in a large pan over medium heat. Add pear, shallot, honey, juice from one lemon wedge, ½ tsp sugar, and a pinch of salt (juice from two lemon wedges and 1 tsp sugar for 4). Cover and cook, stirring occasionally, until pear has softened, 5-7 minutes. • Turn off heat; transfer to a small bowl. Stir in juice from one lemon wedge (two wedges for 4). Wash out pan.
• Evenly layer half the sourdough slices with gouda and as much pear as you like. Top with cheddar and remaining sourdough slices to form sandwiches.
• Melt 1 TBSP butter in pan used for pear over medium heat. Once hot, add sandwiches and push around in pan until butter has absorbed. (For 4 servings, work in batches or use a second pan, using 1 TBSP butter for each batch.) Cook until bread is golden brown and cheese is slightly melted, 4-6 minutes. • Add another 1 TBSP butter to pan, then flip sandwiches and push around again until butter has absorbed. Cook until bread is golden brown and cheese is fully melted, 4-6 minutes.
• While sandwiches are toasting, in a large bowl, whisk together juice from one lemon wedge, 2 TBSP olive oil, ¼ tsp salt, and pepper. (For 4 servings, use juice from two wedges, 4 TBSP olive oil, and ½ tsp salt.) • Add arugula and pecans. Toss to thoroughly coat arugula.
• Halve sandwiches on a diagonal. Divide sandwiches and salad between plates. Serve.
Customer reviews
Review summary
Updated on Dec 2025- Flavor: Many loved the sweet-savory combo of pear and cheese, though some found it needed more punch or seasoning.
- Ease of prep: Quick and simple to make, though a few found cooking the pears tricky or time-consuming.
- Suggestions: Consider adding bacon, prosciutto, or a tangy sauce like balsamic reduction for extra depth 🍲.
- Portions: Some felt the sandwich needed more filling; doubling the cheese or pear could improve the bread-to-filling ratio.
- Salad: The arugula salad was divisive; some enjoyed it, while others found it too salty or bitter.
Reviews from our home cooks
I was surprised how much I liked this meal, though I did modify to suit my tastes. I only used 2 of the bread slices, used olive oil instead of butter in all cases, only put about 1/4 of the pear/shallot mixture on the sandwich, and only half the grated cheese. The rest of the pear shallot mix and grated cheese went into my salad. I used baby greens to roughly double the salad size and tripled the lemon juice in dressing. It was all delicious, and easy to prepare.
This was a surprisingly delicious sandwich. I would never put those ingredients together but they worked well and the arugula salad was tasty too.
Pear + shallot + honey is a delicious combination. This one comes with double cheese. Great sandwich. The side salad is refreshing. I just added a bit of raspberry dressing.
Really tasty. Hard to get 2 sandwiches from 1 pear but they were so good.
I would have never put pears with onions and honey and grill it between 2 slices of bread, BUT this has to be one of my favorite meals. The flavors together are perfect. I'm keeping this one for later.
Caramel mixed pears with the two different cheeses was a hit but could have used two pieces of gouda for each sandwich instead of one
I didn't use sugar in this recipe because the honey was sweet enough. I waited until the pear was ripe before I made the dish. I also didn't use the pecans because I don't like nuts in my food.
Wasn't sure what to think of this when ordering, but it exceeded expectations... really tasty meal. I do think some small amount of cherry tomatoes would have been a good add to the salad and perhaps croutons. I added both from supplies I had already.
It was good but a little too "fiddly" to cook. It gave me good ideas to enhance my grilled cheese sandwiches, though. The arugula salad was a bit bitter, perhaps could have used a bit of sweet on the dressing.
This was a treat, something different. I am lousy at pairing flavors when making sandwiches, so this was unexpected (by my standards). The only thing was that it wasn't...I don't know, "intense (?)" enough. It seemed to be lacking something, a touch more of one of the existing ingredients or maybe an additional flavor to enhance what's already there? It's definitely a keeper though, something that simply needs a little more work and experimentation.
