Fig, Goat Cheese and Honey Salad from Honey & Co.


Okay, people.  This salad hardly needs a recipe. The title of the salad pretty much says it all. But I am still handing this one over to you because of what Sarit Packer and Itamar Srulovich (chefs and cookbook writers extraordinaire) do to the goat cheese.

They mix it with heavy cream.  

Yes, more dairy.



And in doing so, they get to create these little clouds of cheesiness goodness that when added to the sweet figs, the acidic lemon, the crisp lettuce, the crunchy pistachios, and the thick honey--well, this salad becomes much, much more than the sum of its parts.  My mouth is watering now as I type this.

Perfect for a crisp autumn day, this salad makes a satisfying lunch or a sweet starter to a great meal.



These figs are part of the plethora of fruit that one of the parents at my school has been bringing to the faculty lounge. From pears to plums, from apples to figs, we are luxuriating in the plenty of the orchards in the East Bay. And I am happy to snap up these little taste bombs and plop them in a salad.



Especially if this salad comes from Packer and Srulovich, for they have not yet steered my wrong, especially in the good-for-you greens department.

So whisk together your cream or milk (which is what I used) with your goat cheese, toast up those pistachios, slice up those plump figs. People, I am telling you, this salad is just that good. 

I promise.









Fig, Goat Cheese and Honey Salad


Yield:
3-4 as a light starter

Ingredients:
2 heads of Little Gem lettuce
4 ounces goat cheese
zest of 1/2 lemon
1/4 cup whole milk or heavy cream
2 1/2 Tbsp olive oil
juice of 1 lemon
8 large figs, quartered
2 sprigs fresh mint, picked
1/4 cup roasted pistachios, roughly chopped
salt 
pepper
1 Tbsp honey


Instructions:
1. Separate and wash the lettuce leaves in cold water. Tear the lettuce leaves and then dry on a few sheets of paper towels or in a salad spinner.

2. Crumble the goat cheese into a bowl. Whisk with the lemon zest and milk or cream until completely smooth.

3. In a separate bowl or jar, whisk together the olive oil and lemon juice.  

4. Arrange the lettuce leaves on a large serving platter or individual salad plates. Scatter with the fig wedges and the mint leaves. Top with copped pistachios and dollops of the creamy goat cheese. Sprinkle with salt and pepper. Drizzle with the olive oil and lemon juice. Finish by dribbling the honey over the salad.

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