Seasonal Mixed Greens with Lemon-Dijon Vinaigrette
The fall and winter starter salad: pear, fig, pomegranate, fennel, and goat cheese over delicate baby greens, with fresh herbs and a bright lemon-Dijon vinaigrette.
Yield: Serves 6 · Active: 15 min · Total: 20 min · Fall through early winter, when pears, figs, and pomegranates are at their peak in California and Mediterranean orchards · Cuisine: Mediterranean, farm-to-table · Best eaten: as a starter at fall dinners
This is the elegant starter salad: delicate baby greens instead of the heartier kale and beets of my autumn salads, layered with fall fruit (pear, fig, and pomegranate), thinly shaved fennel, goat cheese, toasted almonds, and a generous handful of fresh herbs. It’s made for the start of a fall dinner: small portions and bright flavors that wake up the appetite without filling you up before the main. If my Massaged Kale Salad is the hearty salad-as-dinner, this is its lighter sister, a course that sets the seasonal mood.
Pear, fig, and goat cheese is one of the most enduring fall pairings in Mediterranean cooking. The fruit’s sweetness and gentle tartness meet the cheese’s tang and creaminess, and the herbs and vinaigrette add a bright finish. It’s the salad that makes Sunday dinner feel like Sunday dinner.
Feeding a crowd for the holidays? See my Fall Harvest Salad with Candied Pecans and Pistachio Dukkah.
Ingredients
Salad
6 cups mixed baby greens
1 ripe pear (Anjou, Bartlett, or Comice), thinly sliced
4 radishes, very thinly sliced
½ small fennel bulb, very thinly shaved
¼ cup pomegranate arils
¼ cup slivered almonds, lightly toasted
4 oz fresh chèvre (goat cheese), crumbled
½ cup unsulfured dried figs, sliced
2 tbsp fresh parsley, minced
2 tbsp fresh mint, minced
2 tbsp fresh basil, torn
Lemon-Dijon vinaigrette
⅓ cup extra virgin olive oil
3 tbsp fresh lemon juice, plus a squeeze for the pear
2 tsp Dijon mustard
1 tsp raw honey
1 small garlic clove, minced
Baja Gold sea salt and black pepper
Swaps:
Nuts: walnuts, pecans, or pistachios instead of almonds
Cheese: aged Manchego or shaved Parmigiano-Reggiano instead of goat cheese
Fruit: sliced Fuyu persimmon or a crisp apple (like Honeycrisp or Pink Lady) instead of pear
For a little extra: a drizzle of pomegranate molasses or a pinch of sumac
Method
Make the vinaigrette. Whisk all the vinaigrette ingredients in a small bowl until emulsified.
Prep the pear. Toss the sliced pear with a squeeze of lemon, so it doesn’t brown.
Build the salad. In a large salad bowl, combine the greens, pear, radishes, fennel, herbs, and figs.
Dress gently. Drizzle with the vinaigrette, and toss gently; baby greens bruise easily.
Top and serve. Scatter the pomegranate, almonds, and goat cheese on top, and serve right away.
Storage
Best assembled and eaten right away; dressed baby greens wilt within an hour.
Prep ahead: The vinaigrette keeps 1 week in the fridge. Shave the fennel and toss it with a little lemon juice to keep it fresh. Slice the pear just before serving.
For a dinner party: Prep everything by the afternoon, and toss the salad just before serving.
A note on honey: The raw honey stays raw in this dressing, since it’s never heated. Honey shouldn’t be given to babies under 12 months.
Nourishment Notes
Pears — pectin, a soluble fiber that supports healthy digestion, plus quercetin and some vitamin C.
Pomegranate — punicalagins and ellagic acid, polyphenols that gut bacteria turn into urolithins, compounds studied for supporting the mitochondria and the cell’s natural cleanup process (mitophagy).
Dried figs — fiber, plus potassium, magnesium, and more calcium than most fruits. Choose unsulfured figs (Black Mission, Calimyrna, or Turkish); sulfured figs are paler and golden, treated with sulfur dioxide, which some people react to.
Fennel — fiber and vitamin C, plus anethole (the same compound in star anise), long used to ease digestion.
Radishes — a member of the cabbage family, with glucosinolates that give them their peppery bite.
Fresh herbs — chlorophyll, vitamins K and C, and aromatic compounds: apigenin in parsley (studied for its gentle calming effects), rosmarinic acid in mint, and eugenol in basil. The herbs are there for nourishment, not just decoration.
Goat cheese — calcium and vitamin K2. Goat’s milk has smaller fat globules and less of the A1-type casein found in cow’s milk, so many people who are sensitive to cow’s milk digest it more easily.
Almonds — vitamin E and monounsaturated fats.
The vinaigrette — vitamin C from the lemon, which helps your body absorb iron; glucosinolates from the Dijon; and olive oil, which helps you absorb the salad’s fat-soluble nutrients.
As a seasonal food, this is a fall and winter starter, served before the main course. Its bitter and tart flavors (from the greens, lemon, Dijon, and goat cheese) draw on an old Mediterranean idea: bitter, tart flavors wake up the appetite and get digestion going. The fat from the olive oil, almonds, and cheese balances the fruit’s natural sugars. You can adapt it all year: berries and stone fruit in summer, persimmon and pomegranate in fall and winter, and tender peas and asparagus in spring.
For your cycle: Light and bright, with fiber that helps clear used estrogen, this salad suits the follicular and ovulatory phases, and makes a fresh start to any meal.
Sourcing
Baby greens, pears, radishes, fennel, and herbs — organic, from a farmers’ market or CSA; heirloom pears (Comice, Bosc, Seckel) have more flavor than supermarket varieties
Pomegranates — organic and California-grown, from a farmers’ market or Frog Hollow Farm
Almonds — organic, from a small California grower
Goat cheese — fresh chèvre from a local goat dairy, or Cypress Grove or Vermont Creamery
Dried figs — organic and unsulfured, from a farmers’ market or Bautista Family Organic
Dijon mustard — organic, like Delouis Fils or Maison Orphée
Raw honey — organic, local, and unfiltered
Extra virgin olive oil — organic, single-estate, harvest-dated, in dark glass
Salt — Baja Gold sea salt
— Anna aka Food Marshall