Fig & Feta Salad

I was just on time for an appointment that Sunday (of course I was!) and I needed something simple and fast for lunch. But it was a Sunday after all so it also needed to be kind of special to keep up with the Sunday mood. Peaking at some leftover figs that were in my counter I imagined a delicious salad with some of them on top. I literally threw everything together in 5 minutes and the result was a delicate, mellow and refreshing salad that made me fall in love with it immediately and now has become one of my favorite recurrent dishes. When I’m out of figs I would use plums or the classic tomatoes. The key here though is the thyme. Is the only herb here and it imparts such an aromatic and robust note to this delicate salad. And I didn’t bother to make a traditional vinaigrette. To tell you the truth, I prefer most of the times to just toss oil, vinegar, salt and any other spices directly on my salads.

Of course you can play around with the ratios but this is how I put it together. It would be great for two persons as the main dish or you can add some chicken or tuna to make it heavier and serve about 4 people.

Ingredients

◯ Red onion slices – ½ cup (half of a medium onion)
◯ Cucumber slices – ½ cup (half of a medium cucumber)
◯ Mixed olives (Kalamata and Greek olives) – ¼ cup
◯ Figs – 4 to 6, halved
◯ Half of a Feta cheese block, chopped in irregular pieces
◯ Extra virgin olive oil – 3 TBSP
◯ Red wine vinegar – 2 to 2 ½ TBSP
◯ Fine sea salt – ½ Tsp + more to taste
◯ Sprinkle of black pepper
◯ Fresh thyme sprigs – 7 to 9
◯ Warm bread to serve (optional)

Steps

Mix all the ingredients except the oil, vinegar and spices in a bowl. Drizzle the oil, vinegar and sprinkle the salt and pepper. Pull down the thyme leaves on top. Toss once more until everything is well combined. Don’t forget warm bread on the side!