Fig and Grape Salad 💜🍇

I tried in vain to come up with a catchy title for this unbelievable salad, but alas. Can’t win ‘em all, and the focus here is just to eat it, right? When I posted stories from this last shoot, the feedback came pouring in begging for this recipe. I’ve been psyched to finally share this Jesscipe with the Squad. The element of the fruit gives this mucho substantive salad a freshness and sweetness. It’s a great injection of joy into a season full of heavier winter fare. There’s a lot of shades of purple happening; fresh figs, red grapes, purple onions, crisp radicchio, and a fig infused dressing that has the base of a blended purple juice. Toasted walnuts add delicious flavor, crunch, and texture. Golden raisins drive this home, adding another color and texture element, as well as  more sweetness. I was taken aback by how magnificent the final result was. It tasted even better then it presented, and made for a wonderful lunch for me and Gabe, my super photographer. That’s the best part about shoot days; the crew gets to be my first tasters. I even packed up leftovers and sent them home with everyone since I’m a Bubbie at .

Ingredients:

Four cups of fresh baby spinach leaves

Two cups of red grapes halved width wise

16 oz fresh ripe figs halved length wise

8 oz toasted walnuts (toasted by gently stirring over a medium flame in a dry skillet until densely fragrant)

A cup of golden raisins

One finely diced red onion

A head of shredded radicchio

And fresh mint leaves should you be so inclined (never a bad idea).

Dressing:

Half a cup of extra virgin olive oil

Half a cup of a purple juice such as pomegranate. I used a blended version of pomegranate, tart cherry, blueberry, and  grape.

3 tbsp fig infused balsamic vinegar. Can use regular balsamic too if that’s what you already have at home (do NOT make yourself crazy!).

A tsp salt and half a tsp pepper.

Whisk dressing together well. Combine all the salad ingredients and lightly dress, artfully arranging extra nuts, figs, and mint on top. Drizzle more dressing on top. This looked gorgeous on a white, rimmed platter. The colors popped stunningly against the white. Bright green, deep purple, and nutty brown coming together to jazz up your menu. Omg, there’s my title; Deep Purple. Ok, breathe, Gurl. I knew I could do it somehow.