Nigel Slater’s midweek dinner: lemon roast potatoes with thyme and feta

Photograph by Jonathan Lovekin

Serves 2. Ready in 1 hour.

A useful summer recipe and one that can be eaten straight from the oven or served cool.

Heat the oven to 200C/gas mark 6. Wash and dry 750g of small, waxy fleshed potatoes. Slice each one in half lengthways and put them in a roasting tin. Pour in 80ml of olive oil.

Scatter over 2 tbsp of thyme leaves and season generously with salt and black pepper. Peel 4 cloves of garlic and crush the cloves to a paste (you could grate them if you prefer).

Cut 1 large lemon in half (or use an extra half if they are small) and put the halves among the potatoes, tossing everything together in the tin.

Roast for 40 minutes, then remove from the oven and squeeze the warm lemons over the potatoes (use oven gloves or press the lemons firmly with the back of a spoon). Leave the squeezed lemon shells among the potatoes and return to the oven for a further 15 minutes.

Remove the potatoes from the oven and crumble 150g of feta cheese over them and serve.

• Blue cheeses, soft and mild, are good here in place of the feta.

• A small waxy potato is my preference, but you could use large, maincrop potatoes, sliced. You may want to cook them briefly in boiling water prior to roasting. You will get a more tender potato.

• You can cook this on the hob if you prefer. Keep the heat low to moderate and partially cover with a lid while the potatoes are cooking. Remove the lid at the end to make sure the potatoes are nicely browned.

• Best eaten hot from the oven or at room temperature. If serving it as a salad, don’t take it straight from the fridge.