Spring Pea Salad with Mint Vinaigrette

Just a simple fresh Spring salad to brighten your day!

Right now the markets are coming alive with all the fresh Spring vegetables.  Sugar snap peas, asparagus, radishes, leeks, scallions, broccoli, green beans, fennel, ramps, fiddleheads, so many other lovely vegetables to choose from.

So I say, grab all your favourites, and make a salad!  For today’s salad, I sat with a bowl and opened up a bunch of sugar snap peas.  It was so hard not to eat them all before I got enough to fill the measuring cup that I wanted!

Depending on which vegetables you choose, some may need a quick blanch before adding them to a salad platter.  Whether cauliflower, broccoli, beans or peas, blanching them brings their flavour alive, and softens them just enough to take away any uncomfortable raw-ness.  So when eating pieces with a fork, the fork should easily spear said vegetables, and a quick blanch will achieve this.

What is Blanching?

Blanching is a technique which ensures that vegetables will be tender crisp and keep their bright colour for salads, crudités platters, or prepping them for freezing.  In some cases it will also reduce some of the bitterness or sharpness of certain greens, or even onions and radishes.  You can blanch vegetables by either a quick rapid boil, steaming, or even the microwave.  After prepping your vegetables whether by peeling and cutting them into smaller pieces etc, you will add them to boiling water.  They won’t be in the water long, or else you will lose the crispiness you are trying to preserve.  Quickly transfer the vegetables with a slotted spoon or spider to a bowl of ice water to shock them.  This will keep the bright colour, and stop any residual cooking by getting rid of any remaining heat from inside the vegetables.  Pat them dry in a towel or paper towels, and they are ready for your salad.  For the peas in today’s salad, they were in the boiling water for maybe 30-45 seconds tops.  For more information on Blanching, check out this great article over at The Spruce Eats

What Else is in This Salad?

The peas are definitely the star.  But there are a bunch of supporting stars as well.  Little gems lettuce, radishes, cucumbers, even purple basil.  I love large loosely torn leaves of basil, parsley or even dill in salads for pops of flavour.  Pick your faves. To add some protein and creamy textures, there are feta and avocado cubes in the salad as well.  You could replace these with goat cheese, bocconcini, chickpeas, or even pearl couscous.  There are definitely so many options, based on what your family loves.

Mint Vinaigrette

This salad deserves a special dressing.  And this dressing definitely fits the bill.  A traditional vinaigrette of olive oil, acid, mustard and aromatics (garlic or shallot) as well as seasonings is a good start.  If you want a dressing to be more balanced, add some honey or maple syrup to play against the acid, whether it is vinegar or lemon juice.  And today, I am having you add a whole whack of fresh mint.  A fresh herby presence really makes this a Springtime dressing.  The mint, honey and lemon all play together to create a wonderful dressing that is good enough to eat with a spoon!  All the dressing ingredients will get added to a blender or food processor and puréed till smooth and the mint is all finely reduced in size.   The garlic chunks are no longer large and imposing, so the texture of this dressing is just wonderful and Springy!

Add some poached eggs, grilled chicken, cedar plank salmon or whatever else you want on the side.  Some crusty bread dipped into this dressing is perfectly acceptable!   This is a great brunch salad, perfect for showers, Sunday with the family, anniversary dinners, or even a relaxing weekday meal. Happy Spring!

For some more great seasonal salads, check out;

Fava Bean Mint and Manchego Salad

Peach Little Gems Walnut and Grape Salad

Tuna Peach and Bocconcini Caprese Salad

Love Jen

ps, I was totally inspired by a food styling shot I saw on Pinterest for this salad.  I have no idea who to credit for it, but it just sang to me.  I followed the photo to a recipe for a pea salad on the What’s Gaby Cooking website.  And the rest is history!

5 from 1 vote

Print

Spring Pea Salad with Mint Vinaigrette

Bright and Springy, this pea salad is a meal thanks to the avocado and feta cubes. The crunch from the radishes and cucumbers, and the flavour of mint in the dressing makes for the perfect salad for brunch or weekday dinner.

Course Salad

Cuisine American, Canadian

Keyword mint, radishes, salad, sugar snap peas

Prep Time 20 minutes

Servings 4

Ingredients

Spring Pea Salad

• 1 cup of shelled fresh sweet peas see Notes
• 2-3 Little Gems Lettuce or other tender salad greens like oak, butter or cress, enough for 4 people
• small handful purple or green basil, parsley or even dill, loosely torn
• 2 mini Cucumbers thinly sliced
• 4 radishes thinly sliced
• 1 Avocado cubed
• 100 grams feta cut into cubes or 4 oz
• Coarse pepper and salt

Mint Vinaigrette

• 1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil
• 6 tbsp lemon juice
• 2 tbsp white wine vinegar
• 1/4 cup coarsely chopped mint leaves , packed
• 3 tbsp runny honey
• 1 tbsp dijon mustard
• 2 garlic cloves roughly chopped
• 1 tbsp chopped shallot
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1/4 tsp pepper

Instructions

Spring Pea Salad

1. To blanch the peas, have a small pot of salted water come to a boil. Have a bowl of cold water and ice ready. When the water is boiling, add the shelled peas and boil for 30-45 seconds, depending on how large the peas are. Quickly transfer them to the ice water bath using a slotted spoon or spider. Once they are completely cooled, pat them dry on a towel. They are now ready for the salad.
2. Arrange the lettuce leaves cut into bite sized pieces on a large platter or bowl. Add the torn herb leaves in amongst the lettuce leaves.
3. Add the peas, cucumber slices, radish slices, avocado and feta cubes on top of the greens. Sprinkle the pepper and a little salt over everything. Serve with the Mint Vinaigrette.

Mint Vinaigrette

1. Add everything for the vinaigrette to a blender or food processor and blend for 2-3 minutes until completely broken down and well combined. Taste and re-season as desired. I use a magic bullet type for this process and it works great.

Recipe Notes

As with all my salads, this is more of a method than an exact science.  Use more of the ingredients you like, whether the peas, the avocado or the feta. Feel free to add other vegetables to the salad. Blanched asparagus, green beans, or even shaved fennel would be lovely.
The vinaigrette is fabulous for all your spring salads. Make enough to last the week, store in the fridge and take out to let it come to room temperature before using.

Serve with poached eggs, baked salmon, or grilled chicken for a complete meal.