Quick Lunch Series: Pear and Fig Salad

I eat a lot of soups and salads for lunch on a week day. The heat is on lately,  and my preference lately has turned to cold salads as opposed to a warm soup.

I picked up a box of Organic figs and pears recently from Whole Foods and the one thing that immediately  came to mind was a salad combining the two. As with soups, I eat a lot of salads. But as far as sweet salads go, I make them rarely. My all time favorite salad with fruits has always been the Raspberry Salad.

Figs have a sweet and delicious taste to them. So now and then I make the exception and try a new salad recipe with them.

Ingredients:

2 cups of fresh mixed greens
4-5 figs, washed and sliced
1/2 a green pear washed, and sliced
a handful of whole or chopped pecans (feel free to toast them)
1-2 tbsp sliced red onion
some feta, blue or gorgonzola cheese

Lemon Vinaigrette Dressing

1 tbsp olive oil
1 tbsp lemon juice
1 tbsp white wine vinegar
salt and fresh ground pepper

Place all salad ingredients in  a large salad bowl and chill in the refrigerator. Toss with the lemon vinaigrette dressing just before serving.

Enjoy!

See Also:

Fig Spinach Salad

 

Fig Spinach Salad

I have never used fresh figs in my cooking other than eating them as fruit. Seeing fresh figs in the produce aisle at Whole Foods I brought some home. As I scoured the web for easy, fun recipes, this one was perfect since I had all the ingredients. Best of all it used spinach greens (remember my 1lb spinach box?)

Ingredients:
2 cups baby spinach
6-8 figs sliced into wedges
sliced red onion
sliced red bell pepper
feta cheese
pecans and sliced almonds

Dressing:
olive oil
lemon juice
honey
minced garlic or I used some garlic oil
fresh ground pepper

Mix all salad ingredients in a bowl. Whisk equal parts of lemon juice and olive oil with garlic and a tsp of honey. Top salad with pecans, feta cheese and drizzle dressing over salad before serving.

Note to self: I think next time I will skip the honey in the dressing. Figs are inherently very sweet so a tangy flavor to the dressing will provide better taste to the palate.