Roast peppers with lavender goats cheese

Ingredients 1 Bell pepper, lavender goats cheese, lavender vinaigrette, spinach, rocket, watercress

Serves: 2 preparation: 30 minutes

This recipe uses two of my recent lavender recipes - lavender goats cheese and lavender vinaigrette. It might sound like a whole lot of lavender... but you can never have too much. This is absolutely delicious, and such a lovely twist of the classic roast pepper and goats cheese combination.

1) Slice the tops from your bell peppers, remove the core and seeds, then slice between the membranes to leave 3 or 4 slices of pepper flesh. Discard the core, seeds and membranes. Roast in the oven for 20 minutes at 180 degrees.

2) Top a slice of bread with the roast pepper, and add the lavender goats cheese balls. Roast in the oven for a further 5 minutes, then dress with the salad and eat hot.

Lavender vinaigrette

Ingredients 1 tsp grainy mustard, 1 tbsp olive oil, 1/2 lemon, 1 tsp lavender, 1 tsp honey (or agave syrup)

Serves: 4 Preparation: 5 minutes

It's no secret that I love lavender, or that this Provençal glory features heavily in my cooking. The vinaigrette is one of the best loved French influences and adding lavender and lemon in place of herbs and vinegar gives this a really wonderful twist. Perfect with peppery salad leaves like rocket and watercress.

1) Add the honey into the lemon juice and whisk together - the fruit acid should help even crystallised honey break down and integrate well.

2) Grind the dried lavender in a mortar and pestle and add to the honey and lemon along with the olive oil and whisk thoroughly.

3) Toss your salad leaves in the dressing and serve.

Carrot, feta & spiced apple salad

Ingredients  1 Carrot, 1 apple, allspice, cinnamon, cumin, muscovado sugar, feta cheese, watercress, pea shoots, ginger hummus

Serves: 1 Preparation: 10 minutes

I never understand why people think that salads are boring, or somehow something to be endured. For me they're one of the only types of food that one can put just about any other type of food into. Bread, potato, pasta, cheese, fruit, vegetables, nuts, herbs, eggs, flowers... you name it!
This is a rather new concoction of mine to showcase the spiced apple slices and ginger hummus that I have quickly become very fond of.

1) Core the apple and slice into crescents. Sprinkle the crescents with a dusting of brown sugar, cumin, allspice and cinnamon and toast under the grill for 5 minutes, turning half way through.

2) Peel the skin from the carrot, then peel the carrot into ribbons. Toss with the watercress and peashoots, and crumble over the feta.

3) Add the apples and drizzle with ginger hummus before serving.

Watercress, pear & gorgonzola soup

Ingredients 400g watercress, 1/4 leek, 1 pint vegetable stock, 50g gorgonzola, 4 pears, cream.

Serves: 4 Preparation: 30 minutes

I love soup. I find all the chopping, stirring and pureeing very soothing, the warm smells that fill the house comforting, and I love ladling out steamy bowls of soup for people to dunk hot crispy bread into, dressing it with ever more creative croutons or swirls of cream and yoghurt. This winter I have created 10 new soups to warm you through on a cold day. This soup has the fabulous peppery tang of watercress, and the sweet/salty combination of pears and blue cheese.
1) Slice and finely dice the leek and sautee in a little butter until soft.

2) Peel and finely dice the pears and add to the pan, stirring through and allowing them to soak in some of the buttery leek flavour before adding the vegetable stock and watercress.

3) Allow to simmer until the pears have softened (about 15 minutes), then strain the watercress, pears and leeks from the stock and pulse thoroughly in a blender. Add back to the stock  and stir through until it has incorporated.

4) Crumble in the gorgonzola and a splash of cream, then stir through before serving.

Asparagus hollandaise

Ingredients 4 eggs, white wine vinegar, lemon juice, butter, pine nuts, asparagus, rocket, watercress, brie

1) To make hollandaise sauce separate 3 egg yolks from the whites, discard the whites and beat the yolks. 

2) Mix 1 tablespoon of white wine vinegar with 1 tablespoon of lemon juice and heat. Whisk the hot mixture into the egg yolks in a steady stream and continue to whisk until the mixture is smooth.

3) Melt 4oz of butter in a pan on a low heat and pour the egg yolk mixture into the pan in a slow stream whilst continuing to whisk. As the sauce begins to thicken take it off the heat and whisk until thick and glossy.

4) Asparagus can be boiled, steamed or grilled - personally I prefer to grill it for 2-3 minutes, it has a beautiful colour, crunchy texture and doesn't dry out

5) Assemble the salad - rocket leaves and watercress, layers of sliced brie (I used Coeur De Lyon - brie should always be French and this has a wonderful honeyed flavour), then the asparagus topped with hollandaise and pine nuts.