Turning of the year salad

The markets have started to look different. Less pale green and scarlet, more orange and purple. I can't believe we've been at this so long that it's starting to turn towards autumn, but so it is. (There's a long way to go. Don't get depressed yet. This is a reminder to myself, mainly, as I've been failing at that so far. I've started to worry about Christmas ffs. The world could have ended by then! Let's not get ahead of ourselves.)

But although that means that some of my loved spring-summer produce is no more (asparagus is long gone, the strawberries are getting tougher, the spinach beet is dark and fibrous), all kinds of glory are bang in season. Peaches and nectarines, tomatoes all over the shop, and the first plums are out there. And figs. Which means my default meals at the moment are leaves, fruit, dressing, bread on the side and Something. Might be cheese, might be ham, might be eggs. Or, today, might be some almonds. It's still vegan week.

Actually, this was delicious. From Persiana, which I've come to late as I got a kindle bargain (I've held out against kindle forever, because Amazon, and because I like real books. But lockdown has broken me. And then all these brilliant older cookbooks that I've never been able to justify have moments when you can buy them for 99p, and... well, I'm not made of stone).

Dressing is *fancy*: 3 parts date molasses to 3 parts oil to 1 part nice vinegar, plus plenty of salt. I'm not honestly sure this is date molasses, which I'd expect to be thicker, and I did end up adding extra vinegar as it was oversweet. But I had this, and honestly who needs more than one sticky date syrup even if it were readily obtainable hereabouts? Once vinegared up, it was great.

Obviously not a dressing to pour on your tomatoes, but this salad is a semi-warm one, on the green and woodsy taste spectrum. Green beans, sliced figs (my first of the year I think) and flaked almonds which should be toasted but there's only one of me and some days the thought of two pans for one meal is just not on. They would be smokier and crunchier if they were, but...

I added a load of land cress underneath, with a bit of lemon on it, for extra leaves, extra bite and more vitamings. And also because I went to the market again this weekend and my fridge is literally full of stuff like land cress. I mean, the existence of watercress does presuppose land cress (also query air cress/fire cress?), but I was startled it existed. We are all learning.