I love figs. Love, love, love them. My Mommom introduced me to figs when I was two. They quickly became my favorite snack. I remember whenever I would go to her house, I would ask if I could have some “vedstaboes.” I couldn’t pronounce vegetables and for some unknown reason, my toddler brain had classified these superfoods as a vegetable instead of the delicious fruit that they so obviously are.
37 years later and I still love figs. In fact, I considered naming this blog “If You Give a Fig,” but my husband dissuaded me from it because he thought too many people would misunderstand it and be offended by it. I guess that is neither here nor there—long story short, I love to find recipes that incorporate figs. So, when I started craving Greek salad a couple weeks ago, I decided to toss in some figs for good measure. And, voila! Fig and Avocado Greek Salad was born.
Fig and Avocado Greek Salad
Equipment
- large salad bowl
Ingredients
- ½ 8-oz package pre-washed organic baby spinach
- 1 cup grape tomatoes
- 1 avocado
- 10 dried figs
- ¼ cup kalamata olives
- 2 baby cucumbers
- ½ cup cooked (and chilled) quinoa
- ½ cup cooked (and chilled) black lentils
- ¼ cup feta cheese (optional)
- ¼ cup balsamic vinaigrette
Instructions
- Wash grape tomatoes, avocados, and cucumbers.
- Dump baby spinach into the large salad bowl.
- Add the whole grape tomatoes to the salad bowl.
- Dice avocados and cucumbers and add them to the salad bowl.
- Chop the dried figs and add them to the salad bowl.
- Sprinkle the cooked quinoa and black lentils into the salad bowl.
- Add the kalamato olives.
- Gently mix/toss the salad to mix the ingredients together.
- Dish into small bowls and garnish with feta (if so desired) and dress with balsamic vinaigrette.
Notes
Healthy Twist on Greek Salad
This Fig and Avocado Greek Salad is my healthy twist on a traditional Greek salad. I use baby spinach in place of romaine lettuce (just to boost the nutritional value), and add kalamata olives, chopped baby cucumbers, grape tomatoes, black lentils, quinoa, and of course, lots of chopped figs and avocados. I sometimes garnish it with a tablespoon of feta cheese and dress it up with balsamic vinaigrette. That’s about it.
It’s really simple to make. Plus, it can be made in five minutes flat! Of course, that’s assuming you have a big pot of lentils and quinoa in the fridge that you made earlier in the week. I know that’s a big assumption, but I cannot recommend it enough. I do that each week and it saves me so much time making healthy weeknight dinners. You can check out my posts on how to quickly and easily make black lentils and quinoa in your Instant Pot.
Resources
My husband and I cannot get enough of this salad. The kids tolerate it, but like it much better if I pick out the olives and replace the balsamic vinaigrette with Bolthouse Farms Yogurt Ranch dressing for their portions. I can buy that at our local grocery store in the refrigerated section or at Walmart.
I’ve yet to figure out a good balsamic vinaigrette recipe, so for right now, I use Primal Kitchen Avocado Oil Greek dressing. It’s strong, but tasty. It was really hard to find truly “clean” balsamic vinaigrettes at our local grocery store, so I was happy to discover that Amazon sells this brand in a three-pack with a few of Primal Kitchen’s other dressings.
And if you’re looking for figs, you absolutely have to try Sunnyfruit Organic Turkish Figs. They are hands down the best figs I have ever eaten. (And that includes the ones I’ve grown on my own fig trees!) You can buy them in bulk in a 40oz bag on Amazon or in snack-packs on Amazon or sometimes even at TJ Maxx. (Though good luck if you get there after I do, because I typically buy them out!) I find the snack packs are more reliably juicy and tasty, and I pretty much always have a few bags of them in my purse and stashed in each of our vehicles in case someone gets hangry! I even give these to our family as stocking stuffers for Christmas in lieu of candy.