Colours, textures, flavours, tart and sweet - you have them all in this perky bright little salad. Roasting the figs and sweet peppers enhanced their flavours. I came across these small round sweet juicy oranges, one of which I deseeded, chopped and added to the dressing: pulp, juice and all. A herb infused goats cheese and some ripe plums contrasted with the lettuce, tomatoes and peppers. Crunchy toasted walnuts for a bit of bite, and a dressing with Zing in it! Served with thin warm slices of your favourite bread, this, Roasted Figs & Tomatoes salad with fresh greens, is a whole meal by itself.

"Recipe"

Salad of roasted figs, greens, walnuts, tomatoes and goats cheese

Salad of Lettuce, Goats Cheese, Roasted Figs & Tomatoes in a Red wine vinegar, honey and lemon dressing

Sujata Shukla

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Cook Time 25

Total Time 25

Course Main Course, Salad

Cuisine Italian

Servings serving

Ingredients

1 red onion
4 Figs (ripe)
3 Tomatoes
10 Cherry tomatoes
1 cucumber
Plums
½ green capsicum
½ pepper Red sweet
6 Lettuce Green leaves
6 lettuce Red leaves
¼ cup Goats cheese crumbled
¼ cup Walnuts (chopped)
to taste salt
to taste pepper
1 tablespoon red wine vinegar
2 tbsps lemon juice Fresh
3 tbsps honey
2 tbsps extra virgin olive oil
1 orange Small sweet (deseeded and chopped)
½ teaspoon lemon zest
½ teaspoon orange zest
a few basil Fresh (shredded)
to taste salt
to taste pepper

Instructions

To make the citrusy honey salad dressing:
Prepare the ingredients for the salad dressing as per the ingredients list above.
Add all the ingredients into a small jar. Beat with a fork for 2 minutes, close the jar and shake well. Keep in the fridge till its time to serve the salad. Before using, shake the jar well again.
To prepare the Salad:
Cut the onion, capsicum and peppers vertically into very thin slices.
Use tomatoes of different colours: I took one green, one firm orange and one ripe red. Remove the eye (stalk end). Slice the green and orange tomatoes into thin slices.
Roughly chop the red tomato, plums and peeled cucumber into small blocks.
Cut each cherry tomato vertically into two.
Cut away the stem and slice each fig into two. Figs are fragile and easily bruised, so handle them gently. Set aside half the figs for roasting and slice the rest.
Store all the cut vegetables except the figs and peppers to be roasted, in a zipped bag in the fridge.
Toast the walnuts on a hot dry pan for 2 minutes, stirring so they don't burn and char. Remove from the pan, chop, cover and keep aside.
Take the figs keptaside for roasting. Pour 2 tsps of olive oil into a small plate or shallow bowl and dip the cut side of the figs in the oil. Sprinkle the left-over oil on the sliced peppers and add a pinch of salt and pepper.
Heat a flat griddle pan till its smoking hot, lower the flame and toast the figs, cut side down for 2 mins or till the griddle marks appear on the figs. Remove from the fire. Add the sliced peppers to the pan, stir and remove after 2 minutes.
Slice the roasted figs.
Crumble the goats cheese and set aside.
Wash the lettuce, shred into pieces and dry in a salad spinner or else pat dry. Wrap in a clean kitchen towel and keep in the fridge till needed.
To make the salad:
Assemble the salad just before serving.
In a large glass bowl, lay out half the green and red shredded lettuce.
Sprinkle salt and pepper and gently mix the tomatoes, fresh figs, cucumber, plums, cherry tomatoes, onion, sliced roasted figs and peppers together. Add them to the bowl of lettuce.
Sprinkle goats cheese and toasted walnuts on the salad.
Take the dressing out from the fridge and shake it. To serve each portion, pour a tablespoon of the dressing onto it and mix gently with your fingers or a pair of salad tongs.
Serve with warm toasted bread,