Roasted Figs Blue Cheese & Walnut Spread
When figs are in season, roast them up and make roasted figs, blue cheese, and walnut spread to wow your guests, or just treat yourself.
Can you believe before last week I had never, ever tasted a fig? Well, that’s not entirely true. I’ve had fig newtons, and that fig jam that comes in a jar and you get at the fancy cheese counter. But I honestly couldn’t say what a fresh fig looked like until the other day. And now I have a bowl full. Hooray for tasting new foods!
Never knew there were yellow figs. Did you? Apparently, there are like a ka-zillion varieties of figs out there. My friend Diana has several fig trees, along with lemon, lime, pink grapefruit and probably other fruit trees I don’t even know about, in her back yard. And guess what? It’s fig season in Arizona and she invited me to pick as many as I wanted.
It also happens to be time for another Recipe ReDux post, and this month’s theme is:
Get Your Fruits and Veggies in Shape
The idea is to show off summer’s bounty of fruits and vegetables in different creative shapes. I’m pretty sure they didn’t mean to just cut them in half, but hey – that’s all I’ve got. I’m just so super excited to be playing with figs instead of carrots.
The interesting I learned about fresh figs, is that they have zero shelf life. You have to use then within about 2 days, or they’ll start to dry out and lose their sweetness. I guess that’s why they’re usually dried.
I roasted my figs to stop their ripening process. With just a little touch of honey and a sprig of rosemary for savory flavor. Because I’m pretty sure figs are perfect with savory things like prosciutto and cheese, and I had a savory-sweet recipe in mind.
Fresh figs have a lovely mildly sweet, almost floral flavor. They’re a great source of fiber and potassium, but in my opinion, their best feature is that they make blue cheese shine. Even if you only like blue cheese the tiniest bit, you’ve gotta try this cheese spread. And do yourself a huge favor and pick up a box or three of those Trader Joe’s raisin rosemary crackers to go with it. You can thank me later.
Roasted Figs Blue Cheese & Walnut Spread
Ingredients
- 4 cups fresh figs stems removed and sliced in half lengthwise
- 2 tablespoons honey divided
- 1 large sprig fresh rosemary
- 5 ounces blue cheese
- 8 ounces Greek cream cheese
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
- pinch of salt
- 1/4 cup chopped walnuts toasted
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 375 degrees
- Spread the fig halves in a single layer in a baking dish, and drizzle with honey. Sprinkle about half of the rosemary needles around the figs, and lay the remainder over the top of the figs.
- Roast the figs for about 30 minutes, or until they are softened and just starting to brown a bit in spots. Stir once or twice while roasting to coat with the honey.
- Let the roasted figs cool to room temperature.
- Combine the blue cheese, cream cheese, vanilla and salt in the bowl of a food processor fitted with the chopping blade, and process until smooth.
- Add the roasted figs and walnuts and pulse just until the figs are broken down into small pieces.
- Serve with crackers and fruit.
Notes
Nutrition
Please do stop by and check out some of the other summer produce recipes below. I’m sure they’re much more creative with shapes than I am.
Eat well!
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This looks so delicious! I love figs and blue cheese, so I’ll definitely have to try this soon!
Thanks Kaleigh! It is a delicious combo – hope you enjoy the recipe 🙂
I’ve never had anything like this, but it sounds amazing!
Thanks Courtney! Figs and blue cheese and a delicious combo. Thanks for stopping by 🙂
THis sounds delicious and by the looks of the crackers you have pictured so do they! Can you tell me the brand you used for the photo?
Thanks so much Darci! I love those crackers – They’re the Raisin Rosemary crackers from Trader Joe’s – their brand.