Healthy Appetizer
Stuffed fig for the win! A friend gave me a giant bowl of figs from her backyard tree the other day. They were so sweet, I actually couldn’t believe it. Obviously some fig jam was in order. But, I still had quite a few figs left over. I decided that this amazing sweetness needed a touch of savory and started working on a sweet and savory stuffed figs healthy appetizer. With just a bit of work I think I’ve come up with a new family favorite and an easy dish to take to holiday parties in the future.
A few notes for stuffed fig ingredients:
There’s really not much to this stuffed fig recipe – figs and soft cheese in a savory meat wrap.
Personally, we found we liked the smaller figs best as they made perfect bite size morsels. If you have the larger figs you can cut them in half and stuff them like a boat. Learn about figs if you’re going shopping for them.
We tried a couple different kinds of cheese; just what we had in the refrigerator. Soft cheeses worked better than hard. Creamier cheeses “mixed” into the soft sweet fig meat the best. Once I did a little research (yes, after I finished the stuffed fig recipe), I noticed many other recipes use goat cheese. Personally, I think any mild, soft cheese would taste fine.
Finally, I had pancetta and proscuitto. Since I wanted to bake the figs, pancetta seemed to work better but either is fine. You could also choose not to bake the stuffed figs, especially if they are super ripe, and just wrap them in proscuitto. This works great for various fruits; try Watermelon Appetizer. Any thin cured meat would be fine. Just something to give a salty, savory addition to the sweet fig and the creamy cheese. Gosh, just writing this makes we want to go grab a few to munch on!
Prepping Stuffed Fig
Remember to remove the stem of the fresh fig. If it’s a small fig just cut a bit of the seeds from the core and you can stuff cheese in the hole. With a medium sized fig you can score the top of the fig in an “X” and then stuff cheese in the hole. Using a larger fig you may need to cut the fig in half from stem to bottom, remove a bit of the core, stuff the cheese in the hole, wrap the meat around and bake cheese size up.
Cut the pancetta vertically for the smaller figs and horizontally for the larger stuffed figs.
If you aren’t baking the stuffed fig then wrap it so people can see the cheese in top.
When baking the stuffed fig then wrapping it depends on the type of cheese you choose. With a cheese that will melt easily and therefore possibly run out of the fit, then fully encase the stuffed fig with the meat (see below). If the cheese is a slower to melt type of cheese, then you can leave the cheese exposed or just cover a bit (see the very first picture in the blog).
Finally, place on a parchment covered baking sheet and bake for 10-15 minutes at 400 degrees. Or until the meat is crispy.
Enjoy a delicious, healthy appetizer of stuffed figs.
Stuffed Fig Appetizer Recipe
Ingredients:
- 20 small to medium figs
- 3 oz soft cheese
- 4 oz pancetta
Directions:
- Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
- With a paring knife cut the stem from the fig. Cut a small “core” in the fig or “score” the top in an X.
- Gently “stuff” a small piece of cheese inside the fig.
- Cut pancetta pieces in half and wrap a ½ piece around the fig.
- Place figs on prepared baking sheet.
- Bake for 10-15 minutes until pancetta is crispy.
Candice O says
Would this be considered health food? You write in an article that Soy is bad for us, but you promote eating a fig stuffed with processed cheese and nitrate filled deli meat is ok. I’m not sure where you got your education from, but you might want to go back to school.
Kellie says
Hi Candice – There are plenty of raw soft cheeses that aren’t processed in unhealthy ways. I NEVER recommend nitrate filled deli meat (see my blog post Processed Meats Too Dangerous for Human Consumption). There are a number of traditional methods of preserving foods, including meat, that don’t use nitrates and are healthy. All health and nutrition is on a continuum; at one end are the people who eat nothing but processed and fast foods; at the other end are the people who raise their own animals, vegetables and prepare/preserve all foods properly. Most people are somewhere in the middle. In my over ten years in this field I’ve found my clients have the highest success when my goal is to move people one or two steps on the continuum away from processed foods and toward their healthiest options. That means it is my responsible to provide recipes for people throughout the continuum. You may be closer to one end of the continuum than most people who eat the Standard American Diet (and congratulations if that is so) but disparaging me because I recognize that most people find success with smaller, gradual changes (and a sweet and salty stuffed fig beats potato chips and candy any day) is a great disservice to people trying to make changes in their diets in order to find optimal health. Building solid nutrition foundations with gradual changes will last a lifetime and that’s my purpose.