Fig, Goat Cheese and Pecan Salad

Few days ago I was grocery shopping and I saw figs on sale at my local supermarket. I immediately bought 2 boxes not knowing yet what fig recipes I was going to use, I figured one box I could serve as fresh fruit and the other I could come up with a fig salad. That’s how I came up with this Fig, Goat Cheese and Pecan Salad.

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I remembered that when I was a child we used to spend 2 weeks every summer at the beach. One of my favorite memories from our beach vacations is having fresh, chilled figs with feta cheese as a snack. My mom used to pack them in a thermos like container to keep them cool and that made it a very delicious snack for the beach.

Versatility and Health Benefits of Figs

Figs are a very versatile fruit, they can be eaten as a snack, on salads, on salad dressings, as a marmalade/jelly on toast, dried figs etc etc. Figs have many nutritional benefits, they are high in fiber and in minerals like potassium, calcium, iron and magnesium. They are sweet and they do have about 20g of carbohydrates per 100g of figs. So to my friends on keto or low carb diets, be careful with the carb count as figs are not low carb friendly.

My kids ate the fresh figs as snack and they had some funny face reactions to the texture, but ultimately they liked the fruit. However, when it came time to make a salad out of the other box, I was a bit stuck. I didn’t have feta cheese at home, no time to go out and get some more. I had arugula and goat cheese, so decided to try that combination even though initially I was set on putting together a fig – feta cheese salad. Also, I love pecans so I always have a big container filled with pecans halves and I try to incorporate them in any recipe where I use fruit.

Salad Dressing inspiration

Lastly, as some of you know I’m originally from Albania, most of my recipes are Mediterranean inspired.  I can get pretty creative with my salads, but my salad dressings consisted of olive oil/balsamic vinegar, olive oil/red wine vinegar or olive oil/lemon juice (you see the pattern there?). Before I started the blog and while I was learning how to start a blog, I started posting pictures of my food in Instagram (my account). There I connected with other bloggers and one of them really has an impressive account (A Salad For All Seasons) . Not only are Anne’s salads beautifully put together, but her ability to come up with delicious dressings really inspired me.

Fig Balsamic Salad Dressing

So I decided that for this salad I was going to use something other than my normal oil/vinegar. Well, it’s not that different because I still used olive oil and vinegar, but I blended it with chopped figs and some red onions. Baby steps, right? It wasn’t bad as a first trial dressing and my family loved it, well all except the toddler. She made a bit of a mess throwing arugula covered in dressing around and only ate her new favorite fruit, figs:).

Fig Salad Recipe Notes

Figs tend to vary in size and color, so adjust quantities accordingly when preparing your salad.

You can substitute goat cheese for feta cheese in this salad. Also, feel free to use dressing of your choice.

If you would like to save this recipe for later, I would appreciate it if you save the below image in Pinterest. Thank you:)

Other Salad Recipes:

• Orange Salad
• Cabbage Salad
• Greek Salad