A rare side dish recipe from me and one I had to post here as I simply love it. A minted pea salsa, and a recipe that is the epitome of summer.
Minted Pea Salsa.
I really am not poetic enough to explain just how much I love peas. They are the archetypal summer ingredient for me, sweet light, fresh and require no real cooking.
The salsa pairs them with mint, which let’s face it is a classic combination. Some great summer tomatoes and balsamic vinegar.
It is a recipe that works just as well with a nice piece of grilled lamb as I have photographed it here as it does with a nice piece of poached cod.
If the truth be known I would be happy with a big bowl of this stuff and a spoon.
Just like most of my recipes, this one serves two but you can scale this recipe up as much as you like. It can also be made up to 48 hours in advance although I prefer it fresh.
Pea Recipes.
I find peas such a versatile crop and vegetable. One that deserves a whole lot more love than I think it gets.
Principally because they taste wonderful. But also due to the fact that you can pretty much use most of the plant and not just the peas.
If the pods are young and tender they make fantastic Pea Pod Soup, and I use both tender pea shoots and pea flowers in this delightful duck salad.
You also do not have to travel far on my site to find a pea puree. This fried goats cheese recipe is just one place to find one.
Oh yeah, they work really well in pasta like this pesto spaghetti with peas and goat cheese recipe.
Of course, they are also perfectly scrumptious as a simple side as in this braised beef shin dish.
And don’t worry if you cannot get fresh peas.Good frozen peas are amazing all year round and work in this pea salsa recipe too!
What Else Can I Serve This With?
I have also served this with gammon steaks. Whilst I love gammon, egg & chips a change is as good as a rest and these flavours are a dream with the salty cured gammon!
But give it a try with anything, chicken, pork or even with some baked or grilled cheese.
I have no idea why peas are not used more often in this way!
A pea salsa offers a lovely bright and fresh alternative to a corn salsa, which is, of course, wonderful. But we all love new things right?
Minted Pea Salsa
This simple minted pea salsa is a fantastic side for a BBQ, but is just as good along side some simply cooked fish and is sublime with gammon!
Ingredients
- 150 g Garden Peas
- 1 Red Onion
- 100g Tomato
- 20 Mint Leaves
- 2 Tbsp Capers
- 2 Tbsp Olive Oil
- 1 Tsp Balsamic Vinegar
- Pinch of Salt and Pepper
Instructions
- If you are using frozen peas blanch in salted boiling water for a couple of minutes, if using fresh cut that time in half.
- Remove the peas from the water and roughly chop, you don't want a puree so do this by hand. You are looking for a mix of whole, roughly chopped and finely chopped peas.
- Now cut your capers in the same way you did the peas and add to the mix.
- Now cut a small cross in the base of the tomato with a sharp knife (cutting 2-3mm into the flesh) and plunge into the boiling water for 1 minute.
- Immediately refresh the tomato in ice cold water and the skin should peel right off.
- Cut the tomato into a fine dice after removing the seeds and mix with the peas.
- Finely dice the red onion and again add to the pea/tomato mix.
- Take your mint leaves and roll them around in the palm of your hand to bruise them and release some oils before finely chopping and adding to the pea mix.
- Finally add in the oil and balsamic vinegar and then salt and pepper to your taste ensuring all the ingredient are mixed together.
- Ideally do this about 15 minutes before serving but it will last a couple of days after being made up.
Nutrition Information:
Yield: 2 Serving Size: 1Amount Per Serving: Calories: 216 Total Fat: 14g Saturated Fat: 2g Trans Fat: 0g Unsaturated Fat: 12g Cholesterol: 0mg Sodium: 246mg Carbohydrates: 19g Fiber: 6g Sugar: 8g Protein: 5g
Mint peas and lamb the perfect flavor combination.
They certainly are to me 😀
What a delicious combination! Love lamb and that mint/pea salsa sounds like the perfect sidekick! YUM!
Thanks Dawn!
What a delicious combination! Love lamb and that mint/pea salsa sounds like the perfect sidekick!
Thanks Dawn, pretty classic combinations really 🙂
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 😀