Crystelle says: “I love a good sweet and salty combination and this salad really is the epitome of that. It is inspired by a salad I had in Paris years ago; I remember that the crunch of toasted hazelnuts, sharp goat’s cheese and nutty lentils were such a fantastic combination. And here I’m adding a sweet dimension to the salad with grilled peaches and also some freshness coming from basil and dill. Grilling the peaches caramelises the sugars and really concentrates the sweet flavours, and the slight char on the fruit adds a lovely smokiness too, which is perfectly balanced by the zingy lime in the dressing.”

Serves 6

Ingredients

145g green lentils, uncooked
1 vegetable stock cube
180g green beans, cut into thirds
90g skinless hazelnuts
8 large ripe but firm peaches, stoned and cut into 6 wedges
avocado or coconut oil, for brushing
125g firm goat’s cheese
a large handful (20g) of fresh basil leaves
a large handful (20g) of fresh dill

For the dressing:

35ml olive oil
juice of 1 lime
1 tablespoon rice wine vinegar
1 tablespoon honey
1 teaspoon garlic powder
½ teaspoon fine sea salt
½ teaspoon ground black pepper

Tips:

You can also save time by using 290g precooked green or Puy lentils. Swap the goat’s cheese with vegan cheese, and swap the honey with agave syrup to make this vegan.

Method

Place the lentils in a large saucepan with 650ml water. Bring to the boil, stir in the stock cube and cook for 15 minutes. Then, turn the heat down to a simmer, cover with a lid and cook for a further 5 minutes. Turn off the heat and leave to stand in the steam for 5 minutes before removing the lid and fluffing up the lentils. Set aside to cool.

Place the green beans in a saucepan with about 5cm of water, then cover with a lid and steam over a low heat for 5 minutes (they should still retain some bite). Drain and set aside.

Now make the dressing. Place all the ingredients in a large bowl and whisk well to combine. Add the lentils and green beans directly into the dressing and toss well to coat.

Place the hazelnuts in a dry frying pan over a low heat and toast for about 10 minutes until golden and fragrant. Remove from the heat and bash lightly to break them up into smaller pieces (but not too fine).

Set a griddle pan over a high heat and brush with some oil. Place the peach wedges, cut-side down, on the pan and grill for 2–3 minutes on each side. Carefully remove the peaches from the grill – an offset spatula works well to ensure that they don’t stick to the pan.

Crumble the goat’s cheese into the salad, along with most of the hazelnuts and peaches, reserving a few for a garnish. Rip up the basil leaves, and chop up the dill, then add these to the salad (reserving a small handful) and mix again well to combine.

Serve the salad on a large, flat serving dish, and then scatter the remaining grilled peaches on top, along with an extra sprinkle of basil, dill and hazelnuts.

From Flavour Kitchen by Crystelle Pereira (£22, Kyle Books), out now

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