Spring has sprung! In the winter when it is cold I find it difficult to eat salads. I went through a time where I was buying salad greens with the best intentions and then throwing them away due to salad green owner negligence. But when the weather is warm and sunny I love eating salads. The first salad I will post today is a pea salad, and devoid of leaves. It came about because I had a box of frozen peas in my freezer for months that I entirely forgot about. Fresh peas are amazing, but only available for a few weeks a year (and either expensive if pre-shucked or time consuming if not) and frozen peas are really quite good.
PEA AND APPLE SALAD
1 cup peas
1 small apple
some fresh chopped basil
half a lemon
olive oil
pepper
Either unfreeze your peas by sitting them out (I like to do this in a pasta strainer) or by running cold water over them if you are impatient. Or you could put them out in the sun for 5 minutes! They defrost quite quickly. Chop up an apple. I've been eating pilot apples here in Germany, they are nice and crisp. I cut the apple first four times, one time on each side of the core (the first piece you cut off is a semi circle). Then I cut these in rows lengthwise and then again the other way to get little squares. Mix the apple and peas together with chopped basil leaves, squeeze some lemon juice over it to taste and a dabble (dabble?) of olive oil. Then add a bit of pepper and maybe salt if you want it. Toss. Obviously you could make this in any amount that you want. Easy to make for one person or for 20! The recipe I wrote up there is probably good for two people. Play with whatever ratio of pea to apple that you like, but I think that peas should be dominant with a speckling of apple.
ALL GREEN SALAD
Ok, I have to admit before giving you this recipe that it isn't the most graceful salad in the world. Peas are rather difficult to get on your fork with the spinach leaves. Nonetheless, it is tasty and I like how everything is green. You can put some spinach in your mouth and then fork up some peas and shove them in there. Until you swallow that spinach ain't going anywhere. The mint makes it also especially refreshing for warm days and is known to aid in digestion.
Handful of spinach (you could use baby if you want, I used regular)
smaller handful of fresh mint leaves (if you have a child or a baboon use their hand for measurement)
some peas
half a lime
olive oil
pepper
Wash spinach and mint leaves and dry in a salad spinner (a great invention). Toss with as many peas as you wish, squeeze some lime juice on there (Also, when I juice I just squeeze with my hand. No need to get out a juicer.) add a dribble of olive oil and some pepper and voila! A salad with only green ingredients! Cool! You might assume that the use of a lemon instead of a lime is possible but I assure you, it's FORBIDDEN.
