Recipe of the week: chargrilled spring onions with feta and lemon

It’s an easy dish, this one, says Ella Risbridger – the kind you can throw together while you’re in the middle of making something else. It can make an exciting side dish for four people, or a feast for one person.

Ingredients

• Bunch of spring onions
• 1 unwaxed lemon
• 2 tsp extra-virgin olive oil
• 1 tbsp smoked sea salt
• 1 tbsp mint leaves (basil, coriander and parsley would also work well, but do not use dried mint)
• 2 tbsp (30g)
• crumbled white cheese (feta, probably, but ricotta is also great here; or try burrata for decadence)
• 1 tsp chilli flakes

Method

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• Wash your spring onions, and slice them in half lengthwise. You want them narrow and tangly. Zest the lemon. (Don’t even try with the zesting side of a box grater – just use the smallest grating one that isn’t a faff.)
• Take a griddle pan, and stick it over a medium-high heat. Turn the extractor fan on.
• In a large bowl, toss the onions with the zest, olive oil and salt, then throw them into the smoking pan. Cook for 3-4 mins, turning until charred and blackened.
• Chop the mint finely: you should use a big knife, and see-saw it through the leaves. The knife should pivot, with your hand holding it down at the handle end, as you rock it up and down.
• Return the onions to the bowl and toss with the cheese, mint and chilli. Serve immediately as a side or just, possibly, as a feast for one from the bowl with a fork.

Taken from The Year of Miracles by Ella Risbridger, published by Bloomsbury at £22. To buy from The Week Bookshop for £17.99, call 020-3176 3835 or visit theweekbookshop.co.uk.