Roasted Figs over Greek Yogurt with Sesame and Thyme Honey
Fresh figs roasted with thyme honey and orange until they slump and caramelize, spooned warm over cold Greek yogurt with toasted sesame, pumpkin seeds, and ground flaxseed.
Why You'll Love This Recipe
Fresh figs have a short season and this is what I do with most of mine. Roasting is what changes them. A ripe fig eaten out of hand is delicate and floral, and fifteen minutes in a hot oven with honey and a strip of orange zest turns it into something dark, concentrated, and almost jammy at the edges while the middle stays soft. The thyme is the part people ask about. It sounds like it belongs in a savory dish and it makes the figs taste more like figs, the way a pinch of salt does in a dessert. Ten minutes of work and the oven does the rest.
The trick to the way this eats is temperature. The yogurt goes into the bowls straight from the refrigerator, thick and cold, and the figs come out of the oven and go on hot with their syrup poured over. What you get in the first spoonful is warm fruit against cold cream, and the syrup makes pink channels down through the yogurt as it goes. Cold figs over cold yogurt is a perfectly nice bowl, and it is not this bowl. If you make the figs ahead, it is worth the four minutes to warm them through again in a low oven before you spoon them over.
The seeds are not a garnish here, they are structure. Sesame, pumpkin seeds, and flaxseed toasted together in a dry skillet give you three different kinds of crunch and a nutty smell that fills the kitchen, and they keep a bowl of yogurt and fruit from being over in four spoonfuls. This is a morning bowl for a day when I have a little time. It travels well in a jar if you keep the seeds separate until you eat, which is how it usually leaves my house on a weekday.
Ingredients
- 2 1/2 cups plain nonfat Greek yogurt, cold
- 10 to 12 fresh figs, about 14 oz, stems trimmed and halved lengthwise
- 6 tbsp sesame seeds
- 1/3 cup hulled pumpkin seeds
- 3 tbsp ground flaxseed
- 1 small orange, zest stripped in wide pieces and the fruit juiced
- 1 tbsp honey
- 4 sprigs fresh thyme
- 3/4 tsp ground cinnamon
Instructions
- Heat the oven and prepare the figs: Heat the oven to 425°F. Trim the stems from the figs and halve them lengthwise, and arrange them cut side up in a small baking dish where they fit snugly in one layer. A crowded dish is what you want here, since the juices pool rather than spreading out and scorching.
- Make the thyme honey: Warm the honey with the orange juice in a small pan over low heat for about a minute, just until it loosens and pours easily. Take it off the heat, drop in the thyme sprigs and the wide strips of orange zest, and let them sit in the warm syrup for five minutes while the oven comes up to temperature.
- Roast until they slump: Pour the syrup, thyme, and zest over the figs and roast for 13 to 16 minutes, until the cut faces look glassy, the fruit has slumped and softened, and the juices in the dish have thickened enough to coat the back of a spoon. Fish out the thyme sprigs and the zest strips and discard them.
- Toast the seeds: While the figs roast, put the sesame seeds, pumpkin seeds, and flaxseed in a dry skillet over medium heat. Swirl the pan more or less constantly for three to four minutes. The sesame will turn gold and start to pop, the pumpkin seeds will puff and click against the metal, and the whole mixture will smell toasted. Tip it straight onto a cold plate so it stops cooking.
- Build the bowls: Divide the cold yogurt among four bowls and spread it to the edges with the back of a spoon so there is a shallow well in the middle. Spoon the warm figs into the well with all of their syrup, dust with the cinnamon, and scatter the toasted seeds over the top. Serve while the fruit is still warm.
Variations
- Pistachio and rose: Scatter chopped pistachios over the top and add a few drops of rose water to the honey.
- Walnut and pomegranate: Swap the pumpkin seeds for toasted walnuts and finish with pomegranate seeds for a sharper, more tart bowl.
- Roasted plums: Use halved plums in place of the figs, which take about five minutes longer and go a deep red.
- Tahini swirl: Loosen a spoonful of tahini with a little water and swirl it into the yogurt before the figs go on.
- Bay and orange: Roast the figs with a bay leaf in place of the thyme for something darker and more resinous.
Storage & Leftovers
The roasted figs keep four days in a sealed container in the refrigerator with their syrup poured over them, and they get better on day two as the fruit takes up more of the orange and thyme. Warm them in a low oven for four minutes before serving so the difference in temperature against the cold yogurt comes back.
The toasted seed mixture keeps two weeks in a jar at room temperature, which is why it is worth toasting three or four times what you need while the pan is out. Keep the jar away from the stove, since warmth is what turns seeds this oily stale and flat.
Assembled bowls do not keep, because the yogurt goes watery under the fruit syrup within a few hours. If you want to carry this to work, layer the yogurt and figs in a jar the night before and take the seeds separately in a twist of foil, then scatter them on at the last moment.
Notes & Tips
- Crowd the baking dish: Figs spread out on a large sheet pan lose their juices to the hot metal and burn them. A small dish where they touch keeps the syrup pooled around the fruit.
- Do not chop the zest: Wide strips pulled off with a peeler perfume the syrup and then come out. Grated zest scatters through the dish and catches on the bottom.
- Toast the seeds in one pan together: They finish within about thirty seconds of one another, and the sesame popping is your signal that all three are ready.
- Keep the yogurt cold until the last minute: The contrast of hot fruit and cold yogurt is the whole idea, and yogurt left out on the counter goes slack and loses its body.
- Spread a well in the yogurt: A shallow hollow made with the back of a spoon keeps the syrup in the middle of the bowl rather than running to the edges.
- Taste a fig before you sweeten: Late season figs can be so sweet they need only the orange juice. Start with less honey and add at the end if the fruit needs it.
Nutrition & Mindful Eating
- Thick yogurt, roasted fruit, and a heavy scatter of seeds are what make this bowl more than sweet. The yogurt brings the protein and the cool tang, the figs bring their own sweetness and fiber, and the seeds bring the crunch and the fat that make the whole thing hold together.
- Figs are one of the few fruits with real calcium in them, and roasting concentrates their sugars and softens the seeds inside, which is where the fiber that gives them their faintly gritty texture sits.
- Greek yogurt is strained until a spoon stands up in it, which is why so much protein and calcium end up in a single bowlful, and the tang of it is what keeps roasted fruit from tasting cloying.
- Sesame seeds carry more calcium than almost anything else you can scatter with a spoon, and pumpkin seeds bring iron and magnesium along with the way they puff and click in the pan.
- Ground flaxseed disappears into the other seeds and does two quiet things: it carries the plant form of the omega-3 fats, and it needs to be ground rather than whole for you to get anything out of it at all.
- As you eat, take the first spoonful from the middle where the warm syrup meets the cold yogurt, and let the crunch of the seeds slow you down enough to taste the thyme underneath the fruit.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can I use dried figs?
Yes, and they are what I use for nine months of the year. Use about half the weight, snip them in half, and simmer them in the honey and orange juice with a splash of water for six or seven minutes rather than roasting, until they have plumped up and gone glossy.
Which figs should I buy?
Black Mission figs give you the darkest color and the most concentrated flavor, Brown Turkey figs are milder and larger, and either works. Look for fruit that gives slightly under a thumb and has a little wrinkling at the neck, which means it is ripe. A hard fig will not slump properly.
Can I use another yogurt?
Skyr behaves almost identically and is even thicker, so you may want a spoonful of milk stirred through it. A whole milk Greek yogurt is richer and rounder against the fruit. What matters is that it is strained and thick enough to hold a well in the middle.
How do I keep the seeds crisp for a packed breakfast?
Toast them well, cool them completely on a plate before they go into a container, and add them only when you sit down to eat. Seeds put warm into a jar steam themselves soft, and seeds added the night before soften against the yogurt.