Yes, I know, another recipe with blueberries featured prominently in the ingredient list. I can hardly describe this as some sort of culinary crime though, blueberries are so refreshingly versatile in their ability to transform from the achingly sweet to the deepest savoury warmth (try them nestled into the pan with roasted duck or some other game bird that is happy to be paired with berries and other fruit.) I have been faced with a self-inflicted over-abundance of these small cobalt jewels for the past few weeks and have been gleefully forced to incorporate them into many of my culinary efforts. This salad, to me, is an eternal synaesthesia  snapshot of the best parts of August; eat it outside with the lightest of white wines – nothing too sweet, allow the fruit to be the star here, the dryness with cut nicely with the creamy  chèvre.

peach and blueberry salad with fresh chèvre:

(for one personal sized salad)

About 2 cups of green lettuce or baby spinach

1/3 cup of fresh blueberries, rinsed and allowed to dry on a clean tea towel

1 small peach, sliced into half moons

6 grape tomatoes, cut in half

1.5 oz. fresh chèvre (something really light tasting and creamy, you don’t want anything super goaty for this salad; I like to use locally made Happy Days  chèvre)

A small handful of toasted pumpkin seeds

1 Tbsp. red wine vinegar

2 Tbsp. neutral tasting olive oil

1 tsp. Dijon mustard

1 tsp. honey

Kosher salt to taste

Lots of freshly cracked pepper to taste

A large fistful of fresh basil, torn

1. Combine the lettuce or spinach, blueberries, peach slices, tomatoes and chèvre in a pretty salad bowl. Whisk together the salad dressing ingredients until fully emulsified, tasting as you’re whisking until you’re happy with the amount of salt and pepper in the dressing (I love this salad really peppery, I sometimes use my mortar and pestle instead of a pepper grinder for ultimate fiery pepper flavour.)

2. Drizzle the dressing over the salad and toss using either your hands or a pair of spoons. Arrange the basil leaves and toasted sunflower seeds on top, add a final crack of pepper and devour in the sunshine (or, due to decreasing August sunlight, watching a marbled purple and magenta sunset.)

I have so many seemingly random playlists on iTunes and a common denominator amongst most of them is Chapterhouse, primarily because they’re like shoegaze chameleons – ranging from The Swirlies to Slowdive in influence; this song is loudly pretty and reminds me of a combination of both of these bands.

Chapterhouse – Breather