Sweet and Spicy Spring Salad

Sweet and Spicy Spring Salad

Are you tired of boring salads? Had enough of iceberg lettuce with cucumber and tomato? Well, do I have a salad for you today, Sweet and Spicy Spring Salad! This salad brings the sweetness of figs with some spice from some spicy garbanzo beans! You’ll also find some bitter flavors from the spring greens. Did you know that bitter foods are super healthy for us as they increase saliva and stomach acid and stimulate the digestive system? Unfortunately, most of us always reach for the sweets or comfort foods first, but adding more bitters into your diet can help support better gut health. Your taste buds will also thank you when you incorporate more flavor profiles into a dish (bitter, sweet, salty, etc) making it a more complex meal, like this salad!

The figs I used in this salad are Mission Figs from the Valley Fig, and I can only describe them as if a glass of wine and caramel had a baby. Omg, right? Sounds amazing! Because they are. These figs come all the way from California and are providing you with fiber, antioxidants, and minerals! Make sure you take a peek at the Valley Fig website, it’s FULL of great information on figs and other ways to use them in recipes. To counterbalance that fig’s sweetness, I am using raw onion in this salad. I’m really not an onion lover so I chose a purple onion, as it’s a little more mild. Onions help detox our bodies and are excellent sources of phytonutrients, vitamin C, and antioxidants.

On top of all the different flavors in this salad, I also am adding pumpkin seeds, or pepitas, to this salad for a little crunch and texture. Pepitas are full of essential fatty acids, thiamin, Vitamin K, B, and A, zinc, potassium, copper, and more! We should all be incorporating seeds into our diets more often. Think about it, what does a seed grow up to be? A tree or a plant! There is a powerhouse of nutrients and life in those little seeds and when you eat them, you are getting all that great nutrition into your body! I have a feeling you’re going to be looking at seeds in a different way from now on! Alright, let’s get our salad on!

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Sweet and Spicy Spring Salad

Prep Time

10 mins

Cook Time

15 mins

Total Time

25 mins

 

This salad checks all the flavor boxes! Salty, bitter, creamy, sweet, and spicy! Your taste buds will be doing the happy dance and your body will be excited to be getting so many healthy foods and nutrients! You will never accept a plain, boring salad after trying this one! I hope you love this salad as much as I do and please tag Go2Kitchens in all your social media photos once you make it!

Course: Salad

Cuisine: Vegetarian

Servings: 1

Ingredients

Garbanzo beans ingredients:

• 1 can of organic garbanzo beans
• 1/2 tsp sea salt
• 1/2 tsp Cayenne pepper
• 1/2 tsp ground cumin

Salad ingredients:

• 2 cups spring greens
• 1/2 purple onion sliced thin
• 2 tbsp kalamata olives sliced
• 4 oz Mission figs chopped bite sized
• 2 cups Spring greens
• 2 tbsp pumpkin seeds
• 2 tbsp goat cheese (can be omitted if you are dairy free)

Champagne vinaigrette salad dressing ingredients:

• 2 tbsp olive oil
• 1 tbsp Champagne vinegar
• 1 tsp honey
• 1 tsp Dijon mustard
• Dash of Cayenne pepper
• 1/4 tsp sea salt

Instructions

Garbanzo beans instructions:

1. Preheat the oven to 425.
2. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
3. Rinse a can of organic garbanzo beans, gently dry with a paper towel. Drying them will help them crisp up as they bake.
4. Cover beans with sea salt, Cayenne, and cumin.
5. Bake for 15 min in the oven.

Champagne vinaigrette instructions:

1. Add all ingredients into a bowl and stir until fully mixed.

Salad instructions:

1. Place spring greens in a bowl.
2. Top with onions and olives.
3. Nest your figs in the center of the salad.
4. Add chickpeas to the greens.
5. Top with pumpkin seeds and goat cheese.
6. Dress with the champagne vinaigrette.