We talked a while back about figs, and here I am talking about them again. This is what figs usually look like in my corner of the world. They come in boxes like this:

My grocery had maybe a dozen of these boxes – half this kind of fig and half of the rounder green ones that are more pink inside. They were so lovely that even at $9 a box, I couldn’t resist. (Although you can see why I was so excited to get a ripe box for 99 cents a few weeks back.) Right after taking this picture, I washed and ate the one at the bottom right, because it just looked too ripe to keep. Yum.

Now, I’ve already made some roasted figs and canned them. We don’t eat a lot of that as it’s quite rich (but delicious). These figs I was determined to eat fresh. We had them on a salad, which looked pretty much like this:

What a perfect summer lunch! These are local organic greens, scattered with some calendula petals. There’s a bit of chevre in the middle (that’s a soft goat cheese. This one is a bit firmer than others. It comes in a log and you slice off a bit each time. It does tend to crumble.) and then a fig. The dressing is a balsamic vinagrette. Figs are sweet, so the salad needs something tart or sharp to match them. The chevre does that, and these mixed greens have some bolder greens in them than lettuce. Arugula would work beautifully.

For variety this week, I made a salad with grilled asparagus, grilled figs and chevre with balsamic dressing. You could also add proscuitto to it.

Asparagus is easy to grill. The thicker asparagus works better. Trim it, wash it, rub olive oil on it and salt it. Warm the barbeque and put the asparagus on the grill. (Mr. Math puts it on the top rack.) Close the lid, but turn the asparagus a couple of times. It takes about ten minutes.

Grilling figs is done similarly but is much faster. Clean them, slice them in half and rub olive oil on the cut surface. Put them on the barbeque grill, cut side down, but leave them only for a minute or so. Serve them right away.

How do you eat your figs?