Baking is my first love, but I love a good salad. They're easy to make, it's easy to be creative and taste so good. With fig season I decided to combine them with two of my favorite flavors - hazelnut and prosciutto into this fig, hazelnut, and prosciutto salad. The sweet figs taste great with the salty prosciutto and the toasted hazelnuts. This salad is tasty and the lemon vinaigrette is a great pairing.
How to Make the Lemon Vinaigrette
I love making homemade salad dressing and because it is so easy it's been awhile since I've bought it from the store. I stopped buying salad dressing, when I cleaned out the refrigerator one time and found 4 bottles of opened salad dressing.
The basic lemon vinaigrette has four (4) ingredients:
- Extra Virgin Olive Oil
- Fresh Squeezed Lemon Juice
- Shallots
- Salt and Pepper
A good ratio between the oil and acid is 2:1. So this recipe calls for 1/2 cup olive oil and 1/4 cup lemon juice. Combine the ingredients in a 1 pint mason jar, put the lid on and shake until the ingredients are well combined. That's it. It is now ready to add to your salad.
How to Make the Fig, Hazelnut and Prosciutto Salad
As I said before this salad is very easy to make. It serves 2 people as a main course or 4 people as a side salad. My husband and I had this salad for lunch, with a little leftover and I snacked on the remainder throughout the day as I worked on a dessert for the blog.
This salad starts with fresh greens. I get the bagged salad greens from my local grocery store and spread them across the platter. I then add the sliced fresh figs. If you don't have fresh figs, dried figs also work in this salad. I used fresh tomatoes from my yard, but use your favorite tomatoes, even cherry tomatoes.
Prosciutto is so intensely flavored that you don't need a lot for this salad. And since you only need 4 ounces for this salad, it is worth splurging for one of the more expensive brands. If you're vegetarian, replace the prosciutto with roasted chickpeas. Make sure you toast the hazelnuts - browning equals flavor.
The fresh herbs are an easy flavor boost to this salad. I decided to plant an herb garden this year and I'm so glad I did. It's great having a variety of herbs at my fingertips plus the flavor of fresh-cut herbs is much more intense. I've used parsley for years, but until I planted it this year, I had no idea of the real taste and smell of this herb. For this salad I used parsley, mint, and oregano; but use whatever herbs you have on hand.
I hope you try this salad. It's especially good if you want something simple, but tasty and filling with for lunch or dinner. If want to get notified of the latest recipes sign up for my newsletter.
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Fig, Hazelnut and Prosciutto Salad
Ingredients
Lemon Olive Oil Vinaigrette
- 1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil
- 1/4 cup fresh lemon juice
- 1 small shallot chopped
- Salt and pepper
Salad
- 8 cups mixed salad greens
- 10 ounces fresh figs
- 4 medium Roma tomatoes
- 1 medium avocado sliced
- 4 ounces prosciutto
- 1 medium cucumber sliced
- 5 tablespoons toasted hazelnuts roughly chopped
- 1/4 chopped fresh herbs
Instructions
- Combine the olive oil, lemon juice, and shallot in a 1 pint jar. Cover with a lid and shake until emulsified. Add salt and pepper to taste.
- Place the salad green on a large platter or in a large bowl. Cut the fresh figs in half or quarters and add them to the salad greens. Add the tomatoes and the sliced cucumber. Layer the prosciutto and avocado on top of the salad. Sprinkle the hazelnuts and fresh herbs on top.
- Serve and drizzle with the vinaigrette.
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