Fig and rocket salad with ouzo dressing

Fig and rocket salad with ouzo dressing

fig and rocket salad

Contrary to what many tourists who descend on our little island might expect, August isn’t the nicest time to be here. Most of the locals know to clear out for this month as the island gets scorching hot, overcrowded and tempers run high.

Last year, we took off for the whole of August as we took out tiny car with wind down windows and busted AC for a trip round Europe. It was madness and I’m not sure we will do it again but it was fun at the same time and the change of scenery definitely helped with island cabin fever.

This year, we are here so we try to stay out of the crowded places and keep things simple, including food. As we are right in the middle of a Greek fig season, figs are on my hot ingredient list right now. They are ripe to the point of bursting at their seams so need to be eaten fast.

Today’s batch ended up in a Greek-inspired fig and rocket salad and it rocked it hard 🙂 . Apart from mighty figs, the salad features plenty of other Greek flavours: olives, pomegranate seeds, almonds, red onions, olive oil and a touch of ouzo to jazz up the dressing. It comes together in minutes and it’s suitably refreshing. If you’ve been swimming loads and need something more substantial some orzo will fit right in too, so don’t be shy, bulk it up if you need to.

figs for fig and rocket salad

fig cross section for fig and rocket salad

fig and rocket salad close up

serves
4 as starter
PREP
15 min
COOKING
5 min
serves
4 as starter
PREPARATION
15 min
COOKING
5 min
INGREDIENTS
  • approx. 50 g of arugula / rocket leaves
  • approx. 100 g of other neutral tasting salad leaves (I used baby spinach and lollo rosso)
  • 4 ripe figs, cut into quarters
  • 1 small fennel bulb, sliced very thinly
  • 10 Kalamata olives, pitted and quartered
  • a handful of pomegranate seeds
  • a handful of almonds, sliced thinly

OUZO DRESSING

  • 3 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
  • 2 tbsp ouzo
  • 1 tbsp lemon juice
  • salt and pepper, to taste

QUICK-PICKLED ONION

  • 1 small red onion, sliced very thinly
  • ½ cup / 120 ml apple cider vinegar or white wine vinegar
  • 2 tbsp sugar (I used brown)
  • ½ tsp salt
METHOD
  1. Prepare quick-pickled onion by bringing vinegar, sugar, salt and ½ cup / 120 ml water to the boil. Once the pickling liquid boils take it off the heat and add thinly sliced onion to it. Let the onions pickle for 30-60 mins or so before you start preparing the salad.
  2. Mix all the dressing ingredients together in a small bowl and set aside.
  3. Grab a large plate or bowl. Place rocket and other salad leaves on first, scatter shredded fennel on top. Add figs, pomegranate seeds and almonds and pickled onions. Dress with ouzo dressing.
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NUTRITIONAL INFO
calories
364
18%
sugars
20 g
23%
fats
25 g
36%
saturates
3 g
14%
proteins
5 g
11%
carbs
29 g
11%
*per serving
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5.0
2 reviews, 10 comments
REVIEWS & QUESTIONS
Kelly:
Made your pulled jackfruit the other day and we LOVED it!! Actually we would’ve liked to have double the amount of onions :p Should I double the amounts of vinagar and sugar as well in that case? Seems a bit much, especially when tripling the recipe (lol also a larger bunch of people ;) )Thanks!
    Ania
    Ania:
    Hi Kelly,
    Delighted to hear you enjoyed it although I am not sure which recipe you mean exactly (I have quite a few jackfruit ones). I would say, it's really up to you but I would personally thread carefully and vinegar is quite potent, maybe up it by say 25% and see how it goes? x Ania
Annastasia von Itzstein:
Could you use coconut sugar for this recipe?
    Ania
    Ania:
    Yes, absolutely! Anything sweet that offers a counterpoint to all the acid. Ania
Kaarina Hamilton:
Hi gorgeous thank you so much for your beautiful recipes! Sorry to be a pain but if I am making the pickled onions the night before works that be ok? Or how would I store them?
    Ania
    Ania:
    Hi,
    That's no problem at all, store them in an air-tight jar in the fridge. They last for at least 7 days. Hope that helps! Ania
Margo:
I'm a fig newbie! Do you eat them, peel and all? Is it really as simple as just cutting them in quarters?
    Ania
    Ania:
    Hi Margo, no, no need to peel them, just wash gently (or don't, I do) and eat away :) Ania
Anna:
Gorgeous, gorgeous, gorgeous!!! The colour of these figs is just out of this world! I've almost licked my screen! :) Good luck with the heat!xx
    Ania
    Ania:
    Ha ha, thanks, Anna - licking the screen was the 'emotion' I was after ;) Yes, Greek figs are incredible this time of the year. Thank you, I am learning to cope better with it each year :)
Michel Daw:
Greetings from Ottawa, Canada! This was lovely. Today was the first relatively cool day in a week of over 40 temperatures and it was just enough to satisfy the two of us. Couldn't find pomegranate so I substituted fresh local blueberries. So tasty, and my wife loved the quick pickled onions.
    Ania
    Ania:
    Hi Michel,
    Thanks so much for such a lovely feedback, I'm so pleased you and your wife liked this recipe. Tell me about it, we are finally having a few windy and cool days in a row, which is such a relief and I was finally able to make something else other than a salad :) Blueberries sounds great and I'm so jealous as I cannot get any berries here at all I guess I have loads of pomegranates instead so it's all good :)
    Ania
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