Griddled apricot salad with fennel, watercress & blue cheese
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Recipe type: Salad
Prep time: 
Cook time: 
Total time: 
Serves: 4, as a side
 
This sweet, tangy, creamy, griddled apricot salad is a delightful midsummer seasonal salad, and perfect to share amongst friends or alongside a BBQ.
Ingredients
salad
  • 6 ripe apricots, cut in half and stone removed
  • 2 medium fennel, top and tailed, core removed and thinly sliced on a mandolin (or with a knife)
  • 85g watercress
  • 80g tangy blue cheese
  • Olive oil for cooking the apricots
Dressing
  • 4 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
  • 2 tablespoons sherry vinegar
  • 1 small shallot, finely minced
  • ½ teaspoon Dijon mustard
  • ½ teaspoon fennel seeds
  • salt and pepper
Instructions
  1. First, make up your dressing by whisking together all of the ingredients along with a pinch of salt and pepper. Taste the salad by dipping in a leaf of watercress and adjust flavourings as required. If your vinegar is super tangy, add more oil etc.
  2. Toss half of the dressing with the thinly sliced fennel, and leave it to marinade for around 10 minutes.
  3. Heat up a griddle pan over a medium-hot flame and drizzle olive oil over the pan. Lay the apricots cut side down on the pan and cook for around 3 minutes, or until they begin to soften and char marks appear on the surface. Turn over and cook for another 3 minutes, then remove from the pan and allow to cool.
  4. When you're ready to compose your salad, scatter the watercress over a serving plate and add the marinated fennel and the apricots on top. Crumble over the blue cheese, and finish with another drizzle of the dressing and some freshly ground black pepper.
  5. You can serve the salad while the apricots are still warm or allow them to cool first.
Notes
This recipe serves 4, in order not to deceive you my dish in the photo is a slightly smaller portion for illustration purposes.
Recipe by Ceri Jones Chef at https://cerijoneschef.com/griddled-apricot-salad/