Apple, cheese and onion crumble

Apple, cheese and onion is one of those combinations that sounds weird but works surprisingly well.

To be honest, even though I’ve made this a few times now, when I made it this week for the first time in a while I was a bit doubtful about putting apples in a savoury dish. I know you have pork with apple sauce, or maybe pork and apple sausage, but making apple the centre of a meal does seem a little strange. But I urge you to try it, as it’s much better than you might think.

Most people with an apple tree had a huge glut of them this autumn, and if you have been storing any which are starting to go a bit wrinkly, this is a great way to use them up.

The hazelnuts are not vital if you don’t have any, but they do add a really nice crunch and extra flavour to the topping.

Serves 2

Ingredients

3 medium onions
1 tsp vegetable oil
5 medium apples
60g/ 2 oz full-flavoured cheese (I usually use something like a mature Cheddar or double Gloucester, but something crumbly like Cheshire or Wensleydale would work too)
1 tsp dried thyme or 2 tsp fresh thyme leaves
60g/2 oz bread (about 1.5 slices, or you can use ready-made breadcrumbs)
1 oz hazelnuts (optional – you can leave them out or use walnuts or pecans instead)

Method

To make the filling, start by thinly slicing the onions. Heat the oil in a large saucepan and add the onions, half the thyme and some black pepper. Cook over a low to medium heat for about 20 minutes. They don’t need to go brown but should be sweet and tender and have started to collapse.

Peel, core and slice the apples. Add them to the pan, cover and cook for about ten minutes more, or until they have softened but still keep their shape. Slice the cheese. Put the apple and onion mixture into a small pie dish with the slices of cheese tucked in amongst it.

To make the crumble topping, put the bread, remaining thyme and nuts into a food processor and pulse until you have fine crumbs. (If you don’t have a food processor, you can use shop-bought breadcrumbs and omit the nuts or use ready-chopped nuts).

Sprinkle the crumble topping on top of the mixture and bake at gas mark 6/ 200C/ 400F for 20-30 minutes or until the top has browned and the filling is piping hot with the cheese melted.

I like to serve this with something simple like steamed broccoli or carrots, and maybe some potatoes on the side.