If you didn’t know already, I love my salads. Often seen as the perfect meal to eat in the summer, I love them all year round and they have become a staple in my every day eats.
They are just so easy to make and can be thrown together in a hurry. Whether your fridge is full to the brim or you need to go out to do the grocery shopping, you can always make a delicious salad at the drop of a hat. One of my favourite things about salads is that anything goes, there are no culinary rules or no-nos.
Whatever the weather you can enjoy a hearty and delicious salad for lunch or dinner. I’ve been enjoying incorporating warm ingredients in my salads to take the chill out of them a little. This ,may be warm cooked meat or even vegetables on top of peppery mixed leaves. I have to say they are utterly delicious this way. Check out some of my previous recipes that are perfect warm or cold, perfect for the colder months:
Roast Chicken and Squash Salad
Avocado and Wasabi Jerusalem Artichoke Salad
Grilled Pear and Goat’s Cheese Salad
And if none of those lovelies tickle your fancy, then I have another amazing warm salad recipe that I whipped up last weekend. It involves the best of this seasons produce such as roasted sprouts and my al time favourite, figs!
![IMG_8422[1]](https://drjemma.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/IMG_84221.jpg "IMG_8422[1]")
- a handful of mixed salad leaves
- 1 apple
- 2 figs
- handful of roasted brussle sprouts
- pecan nuts
- 2 tbsps maple syrup
- salt
- feta cheese to crumble
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Slice the apples and quarter the figs and roast in the oven on a medium heat for about 15 minutes until tender. Meanwhile, in a pan heat the maple syrup on a low heat and add the pecan nuts and a pinch of salt. Coat the pecans in the maple syrup and take of the heat. Allow the pecans to cool and the maple syrup to harden.
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Next assemble to salad. On top of the mixed leaves add the roasted brussel sprouts, roasted apple and fig slices, crumbled feta cheese and candied pecans.
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Eat and enjoy!
Those maple salted candied pecans are just heavenly. I think I will be making more of those as snack, yum! Forgive me, but I cannot stop going on about how good this salad is, definitely one of my favourites.
Do you have any favourite autumn inspired salad recipes? What’s your favourite seasonal produce to put on your salads right now?
Are you a fan of warm salads?
Ooh thankyou for this! I’ve been on a total butternut squash kick this weekend, making soup and pie – but definitely need to get back on those salads. Anything with broccoli is fine by me! And I keep forgetting about those sprouts rolling around the drawer in my fridge…
Haha! You should really get those sprouts roasted in maple syrup. 🙂
That sounds great. I have to say I’ve really been feeling the cold the last few days, and just craving soup rather than my usual lunch salads. I need to make a warm one!
I’ve been having a lot of soups lately too but warm salads are a nice alternative.
I had a warm salad for lunch today- I had beetroot, tomatoes, roasted peppers, figs and avocado with lentils- I heated it in the microwave at work, and then topped with a little hummus. So much nicer to have a warm lunch when it is so cold!
I’m all about the warm lunches right now. Your salad sounds lovely!
Those pecans sound divine Jemma! Love the look of this salad too, you really are fig queen 🙂
Haha! I guess I am, love them at the mo.
That salad is full of autumn flavours! I made a salad with grilled pears, goats cheese and maple dressing a couple of weeks ago that was very similar and amazing!
I’m all about squash at the moment. It goes with everything. Actually a new meal I’ve been loving is roasted sausages with apples. Very tasty!
Loving all those salads. They look so pretty and tasty.
That salad looks amazing. I love warm salads in winter and figs are one of my favourite foods. x
This looks amazing. I find it can be hard to keep the salad eating up into the colder months for most people as it’s usually seen as a spring/summer type deal especially since that’s when a lot of people are trying to get healthy. That’s why recipes like these are so helpful. Adding things like maple syrup is a great call for inspiring fall-type recipes when it comes to salad. Trying this out ASAP!