I hoped to be bringing you a recipe for herbed focaccia bread tonight. Whole grain bread baking has been on my list of things I want to get good at–I even took a bread baking class last fall that was supposed to focus on whole grain breads. In reality, the class featured recipes that split white flour and whole wheat flour. Um, I already know how to do that. That’s easy. Making bread taste good and be the right texture with 100% whole grain flours, no white flour (oh yeah, and no sugar), isn’t so easy.
I ended up being really disappointed with my focaccia loaf. The texture was okay; I used white whole wheat flour and it wasn’t too dense. The flavor, however, was bland. And I’m not going to give you a recipe for bland bread. What I am going to give you is a recipe that can help any loaf of focaccia taste good, even if it happens to be almost flavorless all on its own.
My inspiration came from this recipe on The Pioneer Woman. I made her pizza (with my own dough recipe) back in December when we had family visiting and it was a big hit. I knew a fig/cheese/arugula combination was just what my boring bread needed. The result was a cross of two side dishes (bread + salad) into one fabulous lunch. It isn’t really a main course for dinner, unless of course you want it to be, and that is your prerogative, but it works great as a light lunch.
Focaccia with Fig Spread, Goat Cheese, and Arugula
- Total Time: 10 minutes
- Yield: 8 servings 1x
Description
A tasty and light snack
Ingredients
- 1 loaf prepared focaccia bread (or pizza crust–that works, too!)
- 1 cup dried figs
- 1/4 cup water
- 1/2 cup crumbled goat cheese
- ~1/2 large bunch arugula, coarsely chopped
Instructions
- In a food processor, process the figs until they are broken down. Add the water and continue to process until it is of a spreadable consistency.
- Spread the mixture on the bread and top with goat cheese.
- Put in a 300 degree oven for approximately 5 minutes, until the cheese just starts to get melty. (Yes, that is the technical term.) Pull it from the oven and top with arugula. Cut into rectangles and serve immediately.
- Prep Time: 5 minutes
- Cook Time: 5 minutes
- Category: Snacks
- Cuisine: American
Nutrition
- Serving Size: 1 serving
- Calories: 105
- Sugar: 9.3g
- Sodium: 62mg
- Fat: 2.1g
- Carbohydrates: 20g
- Protein: 2.2g
I love this combination of flavors. Unfortunately I can’t report what the other members of my family think since I’m the only one who has eaten this. Tim’s been recovering from being sick and says his stomach can’t handle the arugula. Meghan declared that she doesn’t like salad when I offered her a bite. I still have about 4 servings left in the fridge and wish I could share it with some of you because heavens knows I don’t need to eat 8 whole servings of this bread in 2 days. But it’s so good I probably will.
That sounds like an amazing combo! Love sweet + savory. YUM!
Recipes and photos like these make me REALLY miss goat cheese! Those flavors sound awesome together.
I’ve been wanting to try making whole grain bread too…ah, someday.
I’ve always been intimidated to make my own bread. I really want to try though. Looks delicious.
It sounds delicious! Only, I just can’t like arugula no matter how hard I try. The only vegetable I can’t eat. I just can’t get past the bitter taste. Do you think I could substitue some other green. I love the fig/goat cheese combination.