Salads to welcome autumn

 I’ve been eating a lot of warm salads, which seem to be my bridge meal from summer to autumn. This week a green salad with sticky figs, a pumpkin gremolata situation and warm butterbeans with green olives and some more tomatoes, all the recipes are below for you.

Warm butter bean salad with green olives and tomatoes (cover image)

This is loosely based on gigantes plaki – Greek butter beans cooked in tomato and dill, then doused with a hearteningly generous smothering of good olive oil. I’ve eaten these on Greek summer holidays, but they are hearty enough for a colder September day, too – the perfect salad to bridge summer to autumn. I serve them just-warm from the pan; they are arguably better the day after when the flavours have had time to marry, making for excellent leftovers and packed lunches.

Figs with sticky date dressing

This recipe is for when you see great figs, dusty white and deeply purple. The little boxes turn up a few times a year in the greengrocer’s near me, and when they do I make this.This is a killer dressing for any robust salad. If figs aren’t in season, peaches, thinly sliced apples or clementines are all good too.

Roast pumpkin and pistachio gremolata

These honeyed breadcrumbs are my new favourite topping. Here, they are baked with the squash for extra crispness, and this recipe works with almost any root veg.