I recently enjoyed my very first blood orange of the season – floral and tart and promising warmer days ahead. In honour of the first week of spring, a fudgy sweet recipe for a blood orange treacle tart, as well as a 15-minute salad that makes a lovely dish for picnics or packed lunches.

Orange treacle tart

Serves 6–8

• 6 blood oranges, half sliced into roughly 4mm rounds, half juiced
• 80g caster sugar
• 320g sheet of ready-rolled all-butter puff pastry
• 420g bitter orange marmalade
• 200g soft white breadcrumbs
• Thick double cream, to serve (optional)

Heat the oven to 180°C.

Arrange the orange slices in a double layer in a shallow baking dish. Pour over the orange juice and sprinkle over 4 Tbsp sugar, then cover with foil. Roast for 1 hour until the oranges are tender, then set to one side.

Drape the pastry over a 23cm tart tin with a loose base, press it into the tin and prick the bottom with a fork to stop it puffing up too much in the oven. Cover with baking parchment and fill with baking beans. Blind bake in this manner for 15 minutes, until the pastry looks golden on the edges. Remove the baking beans and parchment and cook for a further 5 minutes, until the pastry feels dry to the touch.

While the pastry is baking, warm the marmalade in a medium-sized saucepan over a medium heat, until all melted and syrupy. Take the pan off the heat, add the breadcrumbs and stir together with a wooden spoon until you have a thick, sticky paste.

Spoon the syrupy filling into the pastry case and smooth out with the back of your spoon. Arrange the orange slices over the filling, overlapping and in concentric circles, so the entire surface is covered in a blanket of candied orange. Drizzle the last of the orange juices over the fruit, then set the tart back in the oven and bake for a further 20 minutes.

Take the tart out of the oven, sprinkle with the remaining sugar, then pop back in one last time for 5–10 minutes until the oranges are deliciously caramelised. Serve warm, ideally with thick cream.

Lemony chickpea & walnut salad

Serves 1

• 210g jar of chickpeas
• 1 1/2 Tbsp olive oil
• 1 small onion, chopped
• Finely grated zest and juice of 1/3 lemon
• Leaves from a small bunch of parsley, chopped
• Handful of walnuts
• Sea salt flakes and freshly ground black pepper

Drain the chickpeas in a colander and run them under cold water to wash them clean. Keep running water over them until the water is clear and no longer frothy.

Heat the olive oil in a saucepan over a medium heat. Add the chopped onion and a generous pinch of salt. Fry gently for 3–5 minutes until the onion softens and turns translucent.

Add the chickpeas and toss together in the pan, just long enough to heat through.

Now, remove from the heat and add the lemon zest and juice. Toss together. Lastly, sprinkle over the parsley and crumble in the walnuts.

Toss together for a final time, season to taste and serve warm or at room temperature, as you like.

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