Cos lettuces with tarragon dressing & hard goat’s cheese

Summer

This dressing, which is really what this salad is all about, was inspired by something I can’t quite remember eating in Berlin. The depth of it and the overall joy it brings comes from sweet, green tarragon, one of my favourite herbs. It gets puréed with natural yoghurt, which I find intensely delicious. I’ve used cos lettuce, much loved for its crunchy, cool nature, but you could use a softer butterhead. Something goaty to finish works well with the tarragon, but that’s not to say it wouldn’t be equally good with an aged sheep’s cheese.

Serves 4

Ingredients

2 crisp cos lettuce
75g (2½oz) hard goat’s or sheep’s cheese, finely grated

For the dressing

2 teaspoons Dijon mustard
3 teaspoons cider vinegar
2 teaspoons unrefined golden caster sugar
2 tablespoons natural yoghurt
50ml (1¾fl oz) sunflower oil
50ml (1¾fl oz) extra-virgin olive oil
bunch of tarragon, leaves stripped
salt and freshly ground black pepper

Method

Remove the base from the lettuce with a sharp knife, then separate the leaves. Slice the longer ones into shorter lengths, then wash all the leaves and spin them dry.

To make the dressing, put all the ingredients (except a scattering of tarragon leaves) into a jug blender, season with salt and pepper, and blitz everything together until the tarragon is finely chopped and the dressing is lovely and thick. Set aside.

Pile the cos leaves into a big salad bowl and drench all over with the dressing. Sprinkle the grated cheese over the top of the dressed leaves and finish with the reserved tarragon.

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