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Fresh Fig, Goats Cheese, Pear & Walnut Salad

Published on March 16, 2013 • Last updated July 18, 2014 by Elizabeth
fig-and-goats-cheese-salad

I confess to having never tried a fresh fig before. They’re ugly little fruits, aren’t they, and I’d never before felt the need to try them. I’ve had them in biscuits; I fondly remember fig newtons as a child while growing up in Canada (were there really figs in the fig newtons?), but good golly fresh figs are ugly and unappealing! They are expensive too, but the embarrassment of admitting to my fellow foodies that I’ve never tried a fig was just too great so I took the plunge and bought some. I found a palatable sounding recipe (read: I knew I liked the rest of the ingredients)  from Delicious Magazine which I slightly adapted to use ingredients I had on hand, namely, a 64 g circle of Cornish goats cheese and half a bag of peppery watercress.

The ingredients were laid out on some small salad plates as artistically as I could and I set one down in front of a very reluctant other half. Apparently, he confessed later, he was making faces at his food when I couldn’t see! He wasn’t that keen on trying fresh figs either. Sometimes this food adventure I am on doesn’t particularly appeal to him.

My, what a surprise! Fresh figs, especially with this combination of warmed goats cheese, walnuts, pear, peppery watercress and honey mustard dressing, were wonderful! They’re sweet, with a lovely texture and moreish exotic flavour, which I’m sure would be reminiscent of a times in the middle east, had I ever been there. Both of us cleaned our plates. Figs are now going to make a regular appearance in our shopping trolley. I shall have to experiment more!

Moral of the story: Never judge a fruit by its cover, er… skin… um, inherent ugliness!

fig-salad
Fig, Goats Cheese, Pear & Walnut Salad
by Elizabeth
A light, fruity lunch or starter.
Ingredients
  • 2 figs, quartered
  • 25 grams walnut halves
  • 64 grams goats cheese
  • 1 pear
  • 2 handfuls watercress
  • 1 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
  • 1/4 tsp Dijon mustard
  • 1/2 tsp honey
  • juice 1/2 lemon
  • sea salt
  • freshly ground black pepper
Instructions
1. Preheat grill to medium.
2. Arrange quartered figs, sliced goats cheese and walnuts on a small tray.
3. Place tray under the grill for 5-6 minutes, until warmed through.
4. Meanwhile, thickly slice pear and arrange on a plate with the watercress.
5. Whisk the remaining ingredients together to make a dressing.
6. Arrange warmed figs, goats cheese and walnuts over the pears and watercress. Drizzle with the dressing and serve.
Details

Prep time: 5 mins Cook time: 5 mins Total time: 10 mins Yield: Serves 2

I have entered this recipe into Javelin Warrior’s Made with Love, Monday’s round up of from-scratch recipes.

Made with Love Mondays, hosted by Javelin Warrior

 

Category: Recipe, Salad

About Elizabeth

Solivagant. Foodie. Calls Shetland home.

Previous Post:Sugar Rose Lemon Cake
Next Post:Oatmeal Crusted Loch Trout & Scrambled Eggs

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Janette@culinaryginger

    November 12, 2015 at 4:31 pm

    This is a perfect salad for fig season right now and I’d love this for lunch today

    Reply
  2. Paul Wilson

    March 2, 2015 at 1:10 am

    Love goat’s cheese.

    Reply
  3. Debbie Skerten

    November 1, 2014 at 2:27 pm

    Reminds me of holidays.

    Reply
  4. Margot @ Coffee & Vanilla

    September 12, 2014 at 2:16 pm

    What a yummy salad, usually make similar one with pears alone but never occurred to me I could use figs as well.

    Reply
  5. Csilla

    June 28, 2014 at 9:40 pm

    I’ve never eaten fresh fig just dried one, but this dish looks delicious.

    Reply
  6. Jacqueline Meldrum

    March 16, 2013 at 9:35 am

    I love your salad and I was cheering your hubby on to like it too! Yay!!!

    Great flavour combos Elizabeth. I would really enjoy this salad.

    Reply
    • Elizabeth

      March 16, 2013 at 2:05 pm

      Thank you 🙂 He can be quite the food critic sometimes, so I was very impressed that he enjoyed them!

      Reply
  7. Angela Darroch

    March 16, 2013 at 9:23 am

    We are lucky enough to have a huge big fig tree in our garden as well as walnut trees so this is one combination that I love already. Pity I couldn’t send some over to you. Beautiful photo again.

    Reply
    • Elizabeth

      March 16, 2013 at 2:04 pm

      Wowee! I have to admit to being a little bit envious! 🙂 That must be fabulous to have access to fresh figs and walnuts. Thank you for the compliment about the photo 🙂

      Reply

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Cooking up a storm at the edge of the world

Image of Elizabeth Atia making a cake in the Aald Harbour Hoose, Shetland. Photograph by Misa Hay from Shetland Wool Adventures.

Welcome to Elizabeth’s Kitchen Diary, Scotland’s most northerly award-winning food blog.

I’m based in the wild and remote Shetland Islands, where I’ve been sharing my adventure-fuelling recipes since 2011.

As seen on Shetland: Scotland’s Wondrous Isles on Channel 5.

“Never underestimate the power of your own story. Life may have taken unexpected turns, but it’s never too late to weave new threads of adventure into your tapestry. Keep spinning those yarns, my friend.

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