Pear, watercress and chickpea salad and viognier

Sometimes the best insights come from having a bottle already open rather than consciously choosing what to drink with a dish. I suppose I knew that viognier would go with a salad but it was the composition of this particular salad that made the pairing work so well.

It was from Sabrina Ghayour’s brilliant new book Simply and I’d made it to accompany her beetroot and feta lattice (a pastry slice) which cannot be discounted as part of the pairing though I think it was the salad that made the match sing.

It’s really simple - as the title of the book suggests - watercress and rocket, chickpeas and ripe pears with a punchy harissa dressing and a scattering of sunflower seeds. It was the pears in particular that were lovely with the viognier - a 2019 Saint-Peyre from the Côtes de Thau down on the Languedoc coast* - but it also handled the spice in both the salad and the pie (a gloriously beetrooty, cheesy kind of sausage roll)

You can find one of Sabrina’s other recipes for yoghurt and spice roasted salmon on the site but I do urge you to get the book. I’ve already made half a dozen recipes from it and all have been easy and delicious.

*which you can buy from Ocado for £11.99

For other good viognier pairings see My favourite food pairings with viognier