Very fresh salad of mixed cucumbers and figs
This mixed cucumber and fig salad brings a breath of freshness and sweetness to the table. It's made with cucumbers, baby carrots, young figs, and radishes.
Ingredients · Servings 4 people
- 300 g not too ripe figs
- 30 g salted roasted peanuts
- 8 radishes
- 2 cucumbers
- 2 carrot cucumbers
- sesame seeds
- rice vinegar
- honey
- garlic
- chives
- green chili pepper
- lime
- fresh coriander
- extra virgin olive oil
- sale
Method · 30 minuti più 24 ore di riposo
- Cut the figs in half and place them in a vacuum bag with 1 liter of water, 30 g of salt, and about 100 g of rice vinegar. Let them rest in the refrigerator for 24 hours. If you don't have a vacuum sealer, you can seal the figs in a jar and refrigerate them for twice as long, until they're firm. (You can also make more than you need and use them in batches, keeping them in the refrigerator for up to a week.)
- Peel the cucumbers and cut them into small pieces.
- Peel the carrot cucumbers only partially and cut them into half moons.
- Clean the radishes and cut them into wedges.
- Toast 1 tablespoon of sesame seeds.
- In a bowl, combine 2 tablespoons of rice vinegar, 1 tablespoon of honey, 1 clove of garlic crushed with a garlic press, 1 tablespoon of chives cut into rings, 2 tablespoons of oil, a small piece of finely chopped chili pepper, the sesame seeds, and the peanuts.
- Collect the cucumbers and radishes in the salad bowl, add the figs drained from the brine and season everything with the prepared mixture, completing with a pinch of salt, grated lime zest and coriander leaves.
- Let it marinate for 15 minutes and serve.
We perfected the recipe with advice from Niko Romito, three-Michelin-star chef at the Reale restaurant in Castel di Sangro (L'Aquila) and our mentor for an issue of the magazine.
Here are her suggestions for the original recipe: "It would be interesting to brine the figs for a few hours. This will balance the sweetness of the salad's final flavor. After dressing, I would let it steep for 15 minutes. Unless you also brine the cucumbers, which will make them transparent and very crunchy."