Grilled Romaine Hearts and Figs

You know when you try a unique dish and proceed to think about it for days… then weeks… then MONTHS after you ate it. Perhaps you were traveling and tried something unique. Or maybe it was a fun twist that you never would have thought of.

Well, that’s how I felt the first time I tried grilled lettuce. Specifically, grilled romaine lettuce.

I’ve been thinking about this salad for over a YEAR now! It’s about time I’ve executed!

You’ve gotta try these Grilled Romaine Hearts and Figs…

I first tasted the deliciously wilted leafy green salad at a restaurant. I loved the smokiness, the softening (as weird as that sounds) of usually crisp lettuce, and the saltiness. Restaurants definitely know how to salt their food!

Then, on a trip to Philadelphia, I ate not only grilled romaine hearts, but smoky, salty grilled romaine with figs.

Fresh figs have such a short season (June through September), so it was a treat to enjoy them in the first place. But the sweetness of this summer fruit worked PERFECTLY with the smokiness of grilled lettuce. I don’t think there’s another fruit that would have worked so perfectly and held up in this dish.

So I finally set out to recreate this amazing dish I ate…