Fig Salad with Greens & Walnuts

When fresh figs are in season and splitting at the seams with ripeness, this is the salad to make. It’s the kind of dish you’d find at a farmers’ market dinner: simple, ingredient-driven, and completely dependent on quality.

Ripe figs get quartered or sliced into rounds and laid over tender mixed greens. Think arugula, red oak lettuce, frizzy endive, or a soft butter lettuce. Rounds of mild goat cheese and big walnut pieces go on next.

The vinaigrette is barely a recipe. Finely diced shallot, champagne vinegar, a pinch of salt, and good extra-virgin olive oil (or walnut oil if you have it). That’s four ingredients. Dress the greens lightly first, then spoon the rest over the assembled plates. A grind of black pepper, and it’s done.

Walnut oil instead of olive oil amplifies the walnut flavor throughout the whole salad. It’s worth seeking out if you can find it.

Pro Tips

• Figs should be fully ripe with tiny cracks at the bottom and a slight give when squeezed. Underripe figs taste bland and mealy
• Dress the greens first, separately, with just enough vinaigrette to coat. Then arrange on the plate. This prevents the figs and cheese from sliding around in pooled dressing
• Champagne vinegar is milder than red wine vinegar, which lets the fig sweetness come through. Don’t substitute aggressively acidic vinegars
• Keep the walnut pieces large for visual impact and satisfying crunch

Variations

• Swap goat cheese for crumbled blue cheese for a bolder, saltier bite
• Drizzle with honey for extra sweetness alongside the figs
• Add thin slices of prosciutto for a fig-and-prosciutto salad version