Last week I was fortunate enough to have shelling peas in my CSA share. Usually we get sugar snaps or snow peas in a season, but hadn’t gotten shelling peas before. I really wanted to find a recipe that highlighted the fresh pea flavor.
It was also hot last week, so I wanted to find something that involved minimal cooking.
I found this pea salad recipe on the 101 Cookbooks site, which is a great source of recipes with a true vegetable focus. Heidi Swanson, the site owner, is from the SF Bay Area, so a lot of her recipes remind me of home. Anyway, I found the date-mint combination in the dressing to be quite intriguing, and since I have access to amazing medjool dates here in town, that was a no-brainer to make it. The mint is refreshing, and I love how the lemon and chile give it a pleasant kick.
Beware, though – aside from the pepitas, this recipe has virtually no protein, nor is there much fat in it. Perhaps a little olive oil could be added, but I think even that might weigh things down. So, this dish is best paired with something containing plenty of good fat, like pastured eggs, a selection of raw cheeses, or perhaps even a grass-fed burger!
It is a delicious salad. So refreshing and a wonderful combination of flavors. It also allowed me to use up some of my lettuce, always a challenge for a CSA member this time of year.
This salad makes a lot, and I ate it for three days, almost finishing it off. It’s a wonderful salad to share with friends and loved ones.
Fresh Pea Salad
From 101 Cookbooks
I used a hand blender and it worked great! As you add more water to the dressing, it definitely gets easier to grind up.
1 cup fresh mint leaves (just leaves, no stems)
2 dried dates, pitted
1/2 of a small serrano chile, stem removed (half a jalapeño also works)
a squeeze of fresh lemon juice and zest from that lemon
1 1/2 cups fresh peas
1 small head of romaine lettuce, cut into shreds
1/2 cup toasted pumpkin seeds
fine grain sea salt
To make the mint-date dressing, puree the mint, dates, chiles and lemon juice and zest using a food processor or hand blender. Blend until uniform in texture. Thin it out by adding a tablespoon of water at a time until it is a consistency that you can drizzle. Taste and adjust for lemon and spiciness.
When you go to cook the peas, the key is not overcooking them. Fill a big bowl with ice water and set aside. Add some salt (as you would pasta water) and the peas. Bring six cups of water to a boil in a medium saucepan. You are just going to boil the peas for a very short time. Don’t leave the stove. Somewhere between ten and twenty seconds.You want them just barely tender, so they still pop in your – mouth. Quickly drain and dunk the peas in the bowl of ice water.
Just before serving gently toss the peas, lettuce, and pumpkin seeds with about half of the dressing and a couple pinches of salt. Taste and add more dressing if you like. Finish with a pinch or two of your favorite finishing salt (I like fleur de sel).
Serves 2 – 4
