Baked Figs with Honey, Yogurt, and Vanilla

Happy Valentine’s weekend! This year, I’m not gonna make sweet desserts like Bakewell tart for Valentine’s Day anymore. I’ll make something healthy so that you can stand soppy romance. The topic today is all about Heart Healthy recipes!

Figs have been a luxurious food for thousands of years, especially in Mediterranean and Middle Eastern cuisine, areas of the world where they grow in abundance. As well as being utterly delicious, with a fragrant sweetness that makes your taste buds smile, they are fantastically good for you.

Baked figs with honey and yogurt
Baking with figs recipe

High in fiber and potassium, they help with digestion and can help to lower blood pressure. Figs are also incredibly versatile – you can roast them with goat cheese and drizzle with balsamic vinegar for a savory starter – and they are equally good as dessert.

As a sweet dish, baked figs are often paired with mascarpone cheese or goat cheese, which is a combination made in heaven, but the rich velvety taste of these cheeses comes with a lot of cholesterol. So I decided to do a more heart-healthy recipe for baked figs with honey, using low-fat Greek yogurt, which has a similarly decadent texture, whilst being very good for you.

Oven-roasted figs with honey

To add some flavor impact, I added vanilla seeds to the yogurt, and a small drizzle of honey to the figs. The result is a little, light dessert, that tastes heavenly, and you can demolish it, knowing that it’s doing you and your heart some good. You can even make this dish as the best toast topping ever. Here is how to bake figs in the oven:

Baked figs with honey, yogurt, and vanilla

A heart healthy, middle-eastern inspired dessert
Total Time 20 minutes
Course Dessert
Cuisine Mediterranean
Servings 2
Calories 120 kcal

Ingredients
  

  • 4 baby figs
  • 150 ml low-fat Greek yogurt
  • 1 tsp honey
  • Seeds from ½ a vanilla pod

Instructions
 

  • Cut the figs in half, then slice down the middle of each half without completely separating.
  • Place on an oven tray and drizzle with ½ tsp of honey.
  • Bake in an oven preheated to 180℃ for 15–20 mins, until the figs have softened and have started to release their juices.
  • In the meantime, mix the seeds from the vanilla pod with the Greek yogurt.
  • Serve the warm, baked figs with the yogurt and an extra drizzle of honey.

Notes

This baked fig recipe is quite versatile, so feel free to adjust the quantities of honey, vanilla, and other ingredients to suit your taste. For example, you can sprinkle seeds and nuts like walnuts or pistachios on top of the dish.
Keyword dessert, healthy, vegetarian