what does it taste like?

Like a delicately flavoured version of the nut, it’s savoury, buttery and ever so slightly bitter.

tips, tricks & hacks

• It’s great in salad dressings. During summer, its nutty flavour enhances grain-based salads (try it in tabbouleh), while in winter it works well with blue cheese, pears or other cold-weather ingredients. 
• Use to dress an autumnal bowl of butternut squash risotto or gnocchi with mushrooms.  
• Add flavour to grilled fish and chicken. 
• Smother a bowl of ravioli in Walnut Oil and cheese (try using smoked scamorza).  
• Add to walnut cakes and banana bread to make a moist sponge with extra nutty flavour. 
• Grill peaches brushed in walnut oil to add to salads and pasta dishes.  
• Use to dress a pilaf of wild rice, sweet potatoes, cranberries, walnuts and salad onion.

easy meal idea

Blue cheese, fig & walnut salad

This makes a great cold-weather salad. You can add other autumnal ingredients such as pears or roasted chunks of squash, if you wish, as well as strips of parma ham.

1. Toast some walnut pieces in a dry pan until smelling nicely nutty, then tip onto a side plate to cool. Make a dressing by adding 1 part Walnut Oil, 1 part extra-virgin olive oil and 1 part red wine vinegar to a jar. Add a little Dijon mustard and a pinch of two of sugar, screw on the lid and shake to combine. 
   
   
2. Slice a couple of heads of chicory lengthways, then trim the base to separate the remaining leaves. Place in a large salad bowl. Rip open some ripe figs and add them to bowl. Crumble over chunks of blue cheese, then scatter over the cooled walnuts and drizzle over the dressing.