Fine bean & beluga lentil salad

Ingredients 400g spinach, 100g garden peas, 1 tbsp almond butter, 200g fine beans, 200g beluga or puy lentils (I loveMerchant Gourmet's ready to eat pouches), 1 tbsp butter.

Serves: 4 Preparation: 30 minutes

After the excesses of Christmas, I always veer towards clean, green food. Lentils need not be boring however - this steamy hot salad has an irresistible gloss of silky almond butter, meltingly soft spinach and a crisp crunch of fine beans.

1) Roughly chop the spinach and fine beans and add to a pan with 1 tsp butter and 1 tbsp almond butter. Stir until the spinach has just begun to wilt.

2) Simmer the peas in boiling water for 2 minutes, drain and add to the pan along with the lentils. Add a little extra almond butter if you wish, season with black pepper and serve hot or cold.

Almond buttered bean salad

Ingredients 2 tbs almond butter, 1 tsp truffle oil, 1/4 cup peas, 1/2 courgette, 1 avocado, 1 can cannellini beans.

Serves: 4 (or two as a side dish) Preparation: 10 minutes

Winter to me (like every other season as a vegetarian I suppose!) is somewhat bean-centric. Soups and stews galore are packed with the wonderful range of colours and textures that these little nuggets of protein provide. This salad combines the delicate flavour of courgette and cannellini beans with gutsy almond, earthy truffle and sweet, fresh peas. The dressing is slick and silky with avocado.

1) Rinse the beans and bring to the boil in a pan of salted water for 5 minutes.

2) In a separate pan, warm the almond butter and truffle oil, stirring until a runny dressing has formed, then take off the heat.

3) Slice the avocado in half and use a tablespoon to scoop it from the shell. If the avocado is ripe enough the stone will pop out with a spoon but another good method is to prick it with a knife and pull it out. For the purpose of this dish, roughly dice it into centimetre thick pieces and stir gently into the almond and truffle dressing along with the peas. Some of the avocado will melt to form a thicker sauce and the remains will add texture.

4) I like thin slices of raw courgette in this dish, but you can roast chunks of it if you prefer. Add to the pan of dressing then drain the beans and stir through before serving warm or cold.

Fine bean, pea & mozzarella scramble

Ingredients Egg (one per person and one for the pot!), fine beans, peas, butter, bread, mozzarella pearls.

Preparation: 5 minutes

I am blessed with a very low-maintenance child who will happily play in the kitchen whilst I bake bread or make cheese. However, some days he quite rightly wants a bit more attention and knocking together a quick veggie scramble is absolutely delicious, and gives me enough of a protein kick to fuel our post-lunch playtime. In this hot Summer weather, peas and fine beans give this a sweet, refreshing crunch which is perfect with the creamy mozzarella and egg.

1) Top and tail the beans and slice into sixths. Add equal parts of peas to the pan (about 1/2 cup per person) with a knob of butter and sizzle for 2 minutes.

2) Whisk the egg and pour into the pan, stirring constantly until it begins to take form. Stir in the mozzarella pearls (always use from room temperature, it has no business being in the fridge!) and serve with toast.

Macaroni Peas

Ingredients 1 1/2 cups macaroni, 2 cups garden peas, 150ml milk, cheddar cheese

Serves: 4 preparation: 30 minutes

I can't believe that after almost 500 recipes, I have never shared this with you. Macaroni Cheese is one of those comforting childhood dishes that almost everyone loves (unless of course you've only ever had it out of a packet. Poor thing). Rather than the traditional roux-based sauce (flour + flour? Nonsense poopypants!) I prefer to make mine out of just milk and cheese so that there's less butter involved, though you could use cream if you're feeling super indulgent. The addition of wonderful, sweet, fresh garden peas to this pasta makes it feel far less naughty.

1) Cook the macaroni for 10 - 12 minutes in hot salted water, adding the peas during the last minute (frozen) or the last 4 minutes (freshly podded).

2) As the pasta is cooking, add the milk in a milk pan along with at least 150g grated cheddar (if you prefer your sauce thicker or stronger flavoured, add more) and stir through as the milk warms. Do not allow the milk to boil, but keep it at an even temperature.

3) Strain the pasta and peas, then stir into the cheese sauce. Decant into a casserole dish and top with another layer of grated cheese (I like to add a little parmigiana to).

4) Bake in the oven at 180 degrees for 5 minutes, until the cheese is golden bubbly.

Pancetta, pea & avocado soup

Ingredients 175g pancetta, 1/2 pint ham stock, 300g garden peas, 1 avocado.

Serves: 4 Preparation: 20 minutes

A while ago, I posted a recipe for a fabulous vegetarian soup - pea & avocado which is made with vanilla yoghurt and marrowfat peas. It's thick, rich and velvety and not as sweet as you might expect. Recently I was looking for a new soup idea for a dinner party and thought of mixing the fresh sweetness of garden peas with perfect piggy savoury notes and revisiting that lovely thick avocado texture. Give it a try.

1) Bring the ham stock to a simmer, then add the garden peas and cook for 5 minutes. Strain the peas from the stock (do not discard) and pulse in a blender thoroughly.

2) Pass the peas through a sieve and back into the ham stock to separate the flesh from the skins - this helps your soup to be smooth textured. It might seem like a lot of fuss but trust me - it's worth it!

3) Add the pancetta and allow to cook for a further 5 minutes. The soup shouldn't need seasoning due to the savoury ham stock and pancetta but taste it, and add salt and black pepper if required.

4) Halve the avocados and scoop the fruit from the shell, discarding the stone. Pulse the avocado in the blender and stir into the soup before serving with a dollop of Greek yoghurt.

Feta & sesame poicamole

Ingredients 400g garden peas, feta, mint leaves, Rachel's Organic Greek Yoghurt, sesame seeds

Preparation: 10 minutes

One of my favourite recipes is poicamole, it's so fresh and delicious and I love to slather it on bread and tuck into a relatively healthy snack. Recently I was craving it but for some reason I had no parmeggian in the fridge.

1) Shell your peas (frozen peas are absolutely fine for this) and either boil or steam for 6-8 minutes.

2) Strain in a colander and pour the peas into a blender. Add a good handfull of chopped mint and start to blend.

3) As the peas are blending add teaspoons of greek yoghurt, a good pinch of salt, crumbled feta and pulse thoroughly. Serve on crackers or bread sprinkled with sesame seeds

Pea, mint & pancetta fritters

Ingredients   60g polenta, 1 egg, peas, pancetta, mint, halloumi, olive oil (Optional: Rachel's Organic Greek Yoghurt)

Serves: 2 preparation: 10 minutes

 Fritters are traditionally a sort of savoury doughnut, but thin like a pancake full of stuff, but like potato cakes - I like to make mine a bit thicker. Pea, mint & pancetta as a flavour combination are absolutely wonderful but combined with the salty tang of halloumi this makes a great comfort food.

1) Whisk an egg and stir in the polenta.

2) Finely chop the mint, cut the halloumi into chunks and stir along with the peas and pancetta into the polenta. If the texture is a little dry I like to add in a little Greek yoghurt.

3) Form a patty and drop onto a lightly oiled pan. Sizzle for 2-3 minutes on each side then serve.

Pea & lemon risotto with parmeggian tuiles

Ingredients     2 lemons (juice and zest), 100g peas, 1 pint vegetable stock, 1 cup risotto rice, leek, butter, parmigiano, peashoots to garnish,

Serves: 2 Preparation: 25 minutes


All risottos (no matter what the ingredients) can be made in 3 simple stages. The first is called tostatura - coating the rice in fat, the second involves cooking off some alcohol and the third involves releasing the starch from the rice one ladle of stock at a time. My only possible complaint about this fresh, summery risotto is that the damn lemons bleach the colour of the peas! That's it - this is a wonderful dish that I can return to time and time again. Parmeggian tuiles are a great way to introduce a savoury note and despite being the easiest thing to make in the world, they always seem to impress!


1) To make the parmeggian tuiles, spoon a fine layer of grated parmeggian onto a baking tray lined with baking parchment, using a circular stencil. Bake for 5 minutes until a golden biscuit has formed, then as they begin to cool, peel away the baking parchment from underneath.


2) Slice the leek and sautee in a little butteruntil soft. Add the risotto rice and stir until the rice becomes transparent, revealing a white dot in the centre and pour in the juice of 1 lemon.
3) Once the lemon cooks off, add the first ladle of stock and half of the lemon zest and stir through.

4) Continue adding the stock to the risotto, one ladle at a time, adding the peas with the second to last ladle of stock.

5) Serve garnished with lemon zest, peashoots and the tuiles.

Potato & egg salad with pea pesto

Ingredients 8 exquisa potatoes, 4 eggs, 1 cup garden peas, basil, basil oil, parmigiano, salt, garlic, lemon juice, pine nuts, parsley.

Serves: 4 preparation: 30 minutes


Who says that salads have to be boring? A big heaped dish of this gloriously succulent salad and I guarantee you will never put those two words in mind. The wonderful savoury pesto, fresh sweet peas and the big chunks of egg and potato are filling and comforting and it's full of good stuff for growing people! 

1) Boil the potatoes in salted water for 15 minutes, adding the peas to the water in the last 3 minutes, then strain and set aside to cool. Once they are cool enough to touch, slice in half.


2) Hardboil the eggs for 12 minutes, then run under the cold tap and peel (my tip for peeling. Squash the egg with your palm and start from the top - if you get under the membrane the shell should spiral off, almost in one piece) Slice the eggs in half.


3) To make the pesto - add a good handful of fresh basil leaves to a mortar bowl and grind to a fine pulp. Sautee 1 crushed clove of garlic in basil oil and add to the mortar bowl along with a pinch of salt and a handful of pine nuts. Grind thoroughly, adding lemon juice, basil oil and parmeggian to taste.


4) Stir the potatoes and eggs gently into the pesto, add some freshly chopped parsley and serve warm or cold. If you're feeling extra indulgent, add some grated mozzarella to this heavenly salad.

Olive & tomato pasta

Ingredients    kamalata olives, baby plum     tomatoes, mozarella pearls, honey, basil oil, peas, linguine

Serves: 2 Preparation: 15 minutes


I know that my cooking seems to be absurdly diverse, but you may notice that there is a distinct pattern to my posts. Almost every flavour combination that I discover winds up being tossed with pasta when I have leftovers - I should change the name of this blog to Everything Goes With Pasta! When I made the  tomato and olive bruschetta earlier this week, I knew exactly how the remaining tapenade-like mixture would meet its fate though it did give me pause. When I was a child there was a trend in the post-Thatcher days to mix peas and sweetcorn with EVERYTHING to bulk out a spaghetti bolognaise or some rice and quite honestly I see peas mixed with a tomato-based sauce and want to run screaming from the room with a petulant "not again mummy!". The truth is that peas do go so wonderfully with pasta because the freshness cuts through a heavy cheese based sauce. In this cause I'm using cheese with the peas as a method to cut through the heavy olive-based sauce - mozarella pearls are wonderful here.



1) Put the linguine on to boil. A smooth linguine will take 8 - 10 minutes in salted water, if the linguine is dusted with polenta it will more likely take 11-12 minutes to become soft and pliable.


2) Add the peas during the last 2 minutes (if cooking from frozen - if cooking with shelled peas, 5-7 minutes should do, once they turn colour you only need another minute).


3) Once the pasta has been cooked (either taste a strand, or chuck it at the wall - if it sticks, it's done!), strain and toss in a pan with a few spoons of the remaining olive and tomato sauce and some mozarella pearls. Warm through in the pan, stirring continually until the pasta has become coated.


And serve!

Pea & asparagus risotto

Ingredients 1 pint vegetable or ham stock, 125g asparagus, 75g peas, 1 1/2 cups risotto rice, 1 tbsp chopped mint, 1 white onion, vermouth, butter.

Serves: 4 Preparation: 30 minutes

Pea and mint risotto is a real favourite of mine - whether I give it savoury notes with a little gruyere or parmeggian, or whether I keep it fresh and clean, I never get bored of it. Adding asparagus seems to enhance the freshness of the peas, whilst adding the more complex, nutty savoury notes that I would usually get from the cheese. Perfect if you don't do dairy or are trying to cut down! All risottos (no matter what the ingredients) can be made in 3 simple stages. The first is called tostatura - coating the rice in fat, the second involves cooking off some alcohol and the third involves releasing the starch from the rice one ladle of stock at a time.

1) Finely dice the onion and sautee in a little butter until soft. Add the risotto rice and stir until the rice becomes transparent, revealing a white dot in the centre and pour in a glug of vermouth.
2) Once the alcohol cooks off, add the first ladle of stock and stir through.

3) Continue adding the stock, one ladle at a time, adding the mint, peas and aspragus with the second to last ladle of stock.

4) Finish with freshly grated black pepper and serve.

Pea & mint rice salad

Ingredients   Almond butter, garden peas, mint,  wild rice, long grain rice, goats cheese.

1) Mix the rice together and boil for 20 minutes. During the last 5 minutes, add in the peas.


2) Strain the rice and stir through with almond butter. Slice the goats cheese into chunks and sprinkle with chopped mint. Serve hot or cold.

Potato & goats cheese salad

Ingredients Garden peas, fine beans, exquisa   potatoes, goats cheese, creme fraiche, black pepper, chives, lemon.

1) Prick the potatoes and boil them for 20 minutes in hot salted water. during the last 10 minutes, add the fine beans, during the last 3, add the garden peas.


2) Strain the potatoes and run under a cold tap then set aside.


3) Whip goats cheese with creme fraiche and a squeeze of lemon juice, then stir the potatoes, green beans and garden peas into it. 


4) Serve warm or cold with freshly chopped chives and freshly ground black pepper.

Pesto stuffed chicken

Ingredients Linguine, garden peas, pea shoots, basil, garlic, basil oil, pine nuts, cream cheese, chicken, bacon.

Following from my previous recipe - Linguine with pea pesto, this is a good serving suggestion, using the same creamy pesto to stuff the chicken.

1) Slice a pocket into the side of the chicken breast with a paring knife and stuff with two teaspoons of the pesto mix.

2) Seal the chicken with 2 - 3 slices of thin smoked bacon (or parma ham) and bake in the oven for 25 minutes.

Linguine with pea pesto

Ingredients Linguine, garden peas, pea shoots, basil, garlic, basil oil, pine nuts, cream cheese.

1) Finely slice a good handful of fresh basil leaves and add to a mortar bowl.
Sautee 1 clove of garlic in basil oil and add to the mortar bowl along with a pinch of salt and a handful of pine nuts. Grind thoroughly and then stir in a tablespoon of cream cheese.

2) Drop the linguine into salted boiling water for 10 minutes, adding a handful of garden peas during the last 2 minutes.

3) Stir through the creamy pesto and serve, topped with peashoots and pine nuts

Spicy Spring Scallops

Ingredients Scallops, garden peas, ginger, green finger chilli, cucumber.

1) Peel and slice a generous chunk of ginger, a quarter of a cucumber and remove the core and seeds from a green chilli pepper. Liquidise in a blender until the mixture is smooth and marinate your scallops for an hour.

2) Drop the scallops into a frying pan along with some pre-cooked garden peas sizzle for 2 minutes and serve!

Pea, mint and pancetta risotto

Ingredients Risotto rice (arborio, carnaroli or vialone nano - I would recommend carnaroli), vegetable stock, brandy, garden peas, pancetta cubes, halloumi, onion, cream.

All risottos (no matter what the ingredients) can be made in 3 simple stages. The first is called tostatura - coating the rice in fat, the second involves cooking off some alcohol (white wine, brandy or vermouth produce the best flavours) and the second involves releasing the starch from the rice one ladle of stock at a time.

1) Finely dice half a white onion and add into a hot pan along with a generous glug of olive oil. Stir through and after 30 seconds add in 1 cup of risotto rice (this will serve one - add a half cup for each additional person).

2) Stir through until the olive oil has coated the rice evenly. When you see the grain of rice becoming clear, revealing a white dot in the centre add a shot of brandy or glass of white wine and stir through.

3) Add a ladle of vegetable stock and continue to stir the rice.

4) Add additional stock, ladle by lady as the stock cooks off. By the third ladle add a good handful of chopped mint and your peas. With the last ladle, add some cubed halloumi and the pancetta.

5) When the rice is soft (takes about 20 minutes) serve. A good risotto will be a little soupy rather than dry. It should be possible to form a mound of rice but when the dish is tapped it should sink down. if you wish add a dash of cream.

Pea and lettuce soup

Ingredients 1 iceberg lettuce, basil leaves, mint, garden peas, 1 cucumber, vegetable stock

This unusually refreshing soup can be served hot or cold. 

1) Peel the cucumber, dice the lettuce and add into a pint of vegetable stock

2) Add the garden peas, mint and basil leaves

3) When the lettuce and cucumber have softened, blend thoroughly and then parse through a sieve until you a left with a clear, thin soup.

Thai green curry

Ingredients Quorn chicken pieces, coconut milk, thai basil, coriander, coriander seeds, peas, shallots, garlic, green and red chillis, lemongrass, lime juice, thai ginger/galangal, cumin.

1) To make Thai green curry paste soften the lemongrass in lime juice, then either blend or grind in a mortar and pestle along with the galangal, coriander seeds, cumin, garlic and finely diced shallots. The number of chillis that you add should be to taste. A true thai curry paste will use about 30 green chillis but if you're not great with spices I would go for 6-8.

2) To make the curry sauce separate the cream from the coconut milk (turn your tin upside down before opening and pour the milk out, or spoon the cream from the top and leave the milk in the tin) and spoon into a hot wok.
Cook on a high heat, stirring continually until it has reduced by 1/4.

3) Add 3 or 4 spoons of the thai paste to the coconut cream and stir through.
Add the Quorn chicken pieces (or real chicken of course!) and some chopped red chilli for contrast. Stir through.

4) Add some peas and the rest of the coconut milk. Simmer for 10 - 15 minutes and stir through the finely chopped coriander and thai basil.

5) Serve with wild rice and naan bread.

Poicamole

Ingredients 400g garden peas, parmigiano, mint leaves, basil oil, almond butter Serving suggestion spread on sliced bread, crackers or dunk tortilla chips.

1) Shell your peas (frozen peas are absolutely fine for this) and either boil or steam for 6-8 minutes.

2) Strain in a colander and pour the peas into a blender. Add a good handfull of chopped mint, a dribble of basil oil and start to blend.

3) As the peas are blending add 2-3 teaspoons of almond butter, a good pinch of salt, 6 teaspoons of grated parmeggian and pulse thoroughly.

4) I served this spread on La Brea honey and wheat baguette but, like guacamole this would be great with tortilla chips dunked in it.