fig & bacon salad
This salad is the sweet-salty kind of dramatic; warm bacon wrapped figs, peppery arugula, creamy goat cheese, and crunchy walnuts, all pulled together with a raspberry honey vinaigrette that tastes like it belongs at an overpriced wine bar. It’s rich but bright, simple but weirdly elegant, and the second you add those hot figs on top it stops being ‘ salad’ and turns into an actual meal.
What are figs?
Figs are a fruit, but they’re basically an ancient biological deal disguised as dessert: soft, jammy, honey-sweet on the inside with tiny seeds for crunch, and technically not a “normal” fruit at all - it’s a syconium, a hollow structure where the flowers grow inside instead of outside. For thousands of years they’ve been cultivated across the Mediterranean and Middle East because fig trees thrive in heat and poor soil and still produce something rich, sugary, and easy to dry for winter, which is why figs show up in old trade routes, rituals, and everyday survival food. And yes, the wasp thing is real; many fig species rely on tiny fig wasps to crawl inside the fig, pollinate the flowers, and lay eggs (sometimes dying inside afterward) but the figs enzymes break the wasp down completely, so there isn’t a crunchy bug surprise waiting for you.
How to make fig and bacon salad?
Preheat oven to 425 and line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Wrap each fig with half bacon slice and secure it in place with a toothpick. Place the wrapped figs on the baking sheet and bake for about 20 minutes until the bacon looks crispy. Meanwhile make the dressing. Microwave the frozen raspberries for 20-30 seconds to slightly thaw them, then place them in a medium bowl with honey and red wine vinegar. Use an immersion blender to purée until smooth. Then whisk in olive oil, lemon zest and a pinch of salt. Cover and set aside. Evenly distribute arugula on plates. Crumble the goat cheese over it along with sliced shallots and chopped walnuts. Drizzle the dressing over the salad and add the bacon wrapped figs and avocado slices on top. Serve immediately.
Tips
The salad dressing can be prepared up to 5 days before serving!
The bacon wrapped figs can also be cooked in an air fryer.