Quick & Easy Minted Pea Salsa or Salad
This simple and insanely quick minted pea salsa or salad is the epitome of summer flavours, garden peas, chilli, tomato, red onion and mint!
There is no real cooking involved in this recipe; all you need to do is pour some boiling water over your frozen peas, then get to work chopping. You should be done in 15 minutes!
Minted Pea Chopped Salad
I really am not poetic enough to explain just how much I love garden peas. They are the archetypal summer ingredient for me, sweet, light, fresh and require no real cooking.
I cook with them all year round, and they are not just an afterthought on a plate for me!
I use them in pea and ham risotto, matar paneer curry and even in a puree to accompany my deep fried goats cheese, to name but a few!
This pea salsa or salad pairs fresh or frozen peas with mint, which, let's face it, is a classic combination. Then it gets some great summer tomatoes, a few capers, a bit of chilli and some balsamic vinegar.
I see this recipe as a bit of a summery alternative to my crushed minted peas recipe.
If the truth be known, I would be happy with a big bowl of this stuff and a spoon.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can I use frozen peas?
Yes, absolutely! In fact, unless your peas are eye-wateringly fresh, I'm talking picked that day, then you are better off using frozen peas.
What's the optimum time to let this salsa marinate?
I think anywhere between 15 minutes and an hour is the optimum time. But you can get away with eating it pretty much immediately and leaving it for up to 4 hours.
Do I have to add the chilli?
No. The chilli can be omitted without negatively impacting the dish; they are there just to provide a tiny bit of background spice.
Do I have to use balsamic vinegar?
No, you can swap out the balsamic for other types of vinegar in this recipe. I've used everything from red and white wine vinegar to sherry vinegar and cider vinegar.
They all work really well, and all take this salsa off in a slightly different direction.
Serving Suggestions
This minted pea salsa is wonderfully versatile and works with everything from oily fish to gammon, but it is particularly good with lamb.
I've served it in the image above with a pan fried lamb leg steak and some fried new potatoes.
But you can go to town, it works just as well with a nicely pan fried Barnsley chop as it does with a rack of lamb.
But it is versatile, I've served this with some gammon steaks, deep fried goat cheese and even with my spam fritters.
Equipment Used
I only name-check brands of equipment if I think that they make a material difference to a recipe. But if you have any questions, feel free to ask them in the comments section below the recipe.
- A kettle or another device to boil the water for the peas.
- A small bowl and a sieve.
- Chopping board.
- Kicthen knife.
- A combination of weighing scales, measuring cups and spoons.
Minted Pea Salsa Recipe
Ingredients
- 150 g Frozen Garden Peas 1 Cup
- 1 Small Red Onion 75g
- 1 Small-Medium Tomato 100g
- 1 Red Chilli Pepper (go as hot as you like)
- 24-30 Mint Leaves
- 2 tablespoon Capers
- 2 tablespoon Olive Oil
- ½ tablespoon Balsamic Vinegar
- ½ teaspoon Sugar
- 1-2 Pinches Coarse Sea Salt
Instructions
- Place the frozen peas in a bowl and enough boiling water over them to cover, then allow them to sit for 3-4 minutes, drain and run under cold water to cool them.
- Cut the red onion in half, peel it and then dice it as finely as you can and add it to a bowl.
- Deseed the tomatoes, cut the flesh into a 3-4mm (⅛") dice and add it to the bowl. Grab the seeds and squeeze out any juice into the bowl, then discard the seeds.
- Cut the chilli pepper in half, remove the seeds and stem (discard them), then finely dice the flesh and add it to the bowl.
- Finely chop the mint and toss it into the bowl.
- Drain the capers, place them on a chopping board along with the peas, then roughly chop them, and add them to the bowl. Don't chop this mix too much; you want a nice mix of chopped peas and whole peas.
- Add the sugar, balsamic vinegar and olive oil, give everything a stir, then season with coarse sea salt to taste. Allow the salsa to sit for up to 4 hours, but it can be served immediately if needed.
Mint peas and lamb the perfect flavor combination.
What a delicious combination! Love lamb and that mint/pea salsa sounds like the perfect sidekick! YUM!
What a delicious combination! Love lamb and that mint/pea salsa sounds like the perfect sidekick!
I absolutely love the colours of this dish, it looks so vibrant and healthy.
I love lamb, I love peas and I really like the idea of capers addition to this dish. I will definitely try it and yes I prefer the pickled capers by far. Great dish Brian.
Thank you so much for sharing.
This salsa sounds amazing and perfect for Spring, whenever it will show up. 9 C today. Combining peas with capers is a great idea. I didn't know that you can cook peas flowers, you should share the recipe with us.
Mint peas and lamb the perfect flavor combination.
They certainly are to me 😀
Thanks Dawn, pretty classic combinations really 🙂
What a delicious combination! Love lamb and that mint/pea combo sounds like the perfect sidekick! YUM!
Thanks Dawn!
I absolutely love the colours of this dish, it looks so vibrant and healthy.
I love lamb, I love peas and I really like the idea of capers addition to this dish. I will definitely try it and yes I prefer the pickled capers by far. Great dish Brian.
Thank you so much for sharing.
Thanks Ramona!
This salsa sounds amazing and perfect for Spring, whenever it will show up. 9 C today. Combining peas with capers is a great idea. I didn't know that you can cook peas flowers, you should share the recipe with us.
lol... It would seem we have gone full on summer here in Hungary... We figured pah to spring, went from 10-12 degs to 22-25 degs in 3 days and has not dropped back since. I kinda like it after a brutally long winter!
I don't have a recipe published, I might try and get round to it this year but super quick tempura rocks! BUt you can also use them in salads, they are awesome, they add a real bling and have a beautifully light pea flavour!
Brian, this looks superb! Quite a different version of salsa!
Cheers Byron.
You photo looks stunning! great flavors here! I used to watch some matches in euro cup years ago, maybe I should watch some , it's popular here 🙂
Thank you Farida, I love football so am enjoying my summer treat, although many of the matches are making me tear my hair out, England Vs Iceland being my chief source of agony 😉
I love lamb with mint, so delicious!
Same here, a perfect marriage of flavours 🙂
Looks delicious! I'm looking for recipes to make for my parent's visit!
Thank you, I hope they enjoy it, super quick and simple so plenty of time to chat top guests whilst cooking 🙂
I'm with you guys, lamb and mint, definitely a match made in heaven! Then there's balsamic vinegar! I love your mint marinade and dressing.
Thanks Azlin 🙂
This sounds delicious. I love peas and also agree they are highly underrated! 15 kg to end up with each year is a lot though - wow! First thing I would make is a huge batch of pea pesto! Hope you're enjoying those Euro Cup games -- England seemed to underperform last night!
Thanks Vicky, pea pesto is one of my favourites and it gets jarred up and used throughout winter... In fact most of what we grow is for winter use and we find that 15kg just about sees us through, we ran out of last years harvest a couple of weeks before we started harvesting this year. We like peas 😉
Football is fraught for me and definitely have a sore throat today, I think Englands performances have been strong in many areas, certainly as strong as anything I have seen in recent years although the inability to put the ball in the net is driving me to alcohol 😉
YOu had me at "mint" and "lamb" - I can't think of a better combo! I may have to use some mint sauce in the marinade as it's one of my guilty foodie secrets - I just love the stuff 😉 Looks superb Brian 😀
I know how you feel Jo and may have done the same had we not got some of the most wonderful mint in the garden, it packs such a punch of flavour 😀 In winter I use mint sauce a lot though and to be honest am quite happy eating it from the jar with a spoon 😮
Lol yeah I eat it out of the jar too. And ladle it over almost anything which has been roasted 😉
One of my nieces would eat nothing savoury when she was younger if it didn't have mint sauce on it 😀