Of all the things I cook, this is one of the most requested recipes for gatherings. It’s a simple salad that features chevre (goat cheese), figs, and glazed pecans. Those three flavors together are amazing by themselves, but they do something really special when paired with a homemade dressing with sweet fruit notes.
The recipe below is a base: you can add a lot of other things to the salad that you enjoy. Also, the quantities and proportions are not very scientific. Use your taste buds to get everything right.
Ingredients
- 1 large bowl of a firm lettuce, such as Romaine – I’ve also added a smaller quantity of specialized lettuces for color and flavor or bitterness. Watch out for red leaf lettuce, which will turn everything to a muddy color that doesn’t look like it tastes good at all.
- About 10 dried figs
- 1 cup of crumbled plain chevre
- About a cup of glazed pecans
- 1 ripe pear (red, anjou, etc.) – make sure that it’s ripe, because you want the slivers to melt into the salad, not be crisp
Optional:
- Bacon crumbles – I forego this for a gathering where someone might not eat pork
- Mozzarella or Jack cheese, shredded fine
- Other things that go well in a sweeter tasting salad. Have fun with it.
Dressing
- 1/4 cup Raspberry Balsamic Vinegar
- 1/2 cup Extra Virgin Olive Oil – use an oil that is meant for salads or drizzling. I use Lucini Premium Select Extra Virgin Olive Oil exclusively for this recipe.
- 1/4 cup Blood Orange or Cava Cava or Valencia juice- you want an orange that has stronger orange flavor, not some overgrown tasteless navel
- Pink Himalayan Salt
- Aleppo Pepper Flakes
Instructions
- Wash and cut the lettuce and put it in a large bowl. Make a lot, because it will disappear.
- Sliver the pear into very thin slices, and add it to the lettuce. Translucency is your friend.
- Dice the figs into 1/4 inch pieces; do the same with the pecans or put them in a plastic bag and bang them with a kitchen mallet until they’re all about that size.
- Crumble the goat cheese, or do like I do and buy it pre-crumbled.
- Toss the salad around until it looks like they are even distributed and there’s plenty of goodies
- To make the dressing, add the vinegar, olive oil, and orange juice to a bowl. Add a pinch or so of salt, and a teaspoon of Aleppo pepper flakes to the mixture and whisk until it’s smooth. Taste and adjust as necessary. Let this set for a while for the flavors to infuse.
- Don’t pour the dressing and toss until you’re ready to serve.
I hope that you enjoy making this and serving to your friends.
Brian
