It’s stone fruit season and I’m pretty excited about it. Apricots have always been one of my favourite fruits and when they’re good they’re so good. I’ve always known that dried apricots and cheese were good together on a cheese board and I’ve recently discovered that sweet grilled apricots are amazing with salty goats cheese and thyme. it’s actually a dream combination.

And look how beautiful those colours look together! Totally Christmas spread worthy for those of us in the Southern hemisphere who are currently experiencing all the gorgeous summer fruit. It’s a beautiful looking salad and the flavours would go so well with both turkey and ham.

How amazing is soft goats cheese? It’s one of my favourite cheeses and I’d hapily just sit with a little cylinder of it and spread it on fresh baguette and be done. The creaminess and sharpness is such a delight. But once you add something sweet like the grilled apricots to it then your taste buds are doing a little happy dance.

There’s also the caramelised leeks to talk about. I only use the green part of leek because otherwise the amount of fructose in this salad might be getting a little iffy for me (damn you fructose). But even with that much the sautéed leek add so much flavour to each bite. The soft oak lettuce looks really pretty in this salad but you could use whatever your favourite variety is.

Serves 4 as a side salad

Ingredients

1 Tbs olive oil

1 leek, sliced and washed

3 apricots, halved

1 Tbs thyme

60g goats cheese

1 Green Oak lettuce or similar

Vinaigrette

2 tsps olive oil

2 tsps apple cider vinegar

1 Tbs thyme

Directions

Heat a grill plate. Place the leeks in a bowl and toss with half the olive oil and season with salt and pepper. Add to the hot grill and cook until softened and just starting to colour. Remove and set aside.

Brush the remaining olive oil over the apricots and sprinkle with thyme. Season with salt and black pepper and place on the grill, cut side down. Cook for a couple of minutes, or until clear golden grill marks appear. Turn and cook for another minute or two on the skin side. Remove.

Mix he vinaigrette ingredients together.

Roughly chop the lettuce and place in a shallow bowl or on a plate. Add the apricots, grill side up, sprinkle with the leeks and then scatter over the goats cheese. Drizzle the dressing over the top.

Season with pepper and serve immediately.

HH. x