Peas, fennel, mint, parmesan and lemon salad

 

Spring should have sprung by now. Seriously. This is getting silly. Wind is lashing the window like a strident horseman and the sky is downright grey.

Welcome back to London, Tori.

This is the kind of dish I make when there are clouds lazily bobbing across a blue sky and it’s warm enough to sport a sleeveless top and peg your jeans around your calves. It’s another of the low carb, quick, pull together salads which also looks quite smart. Here are some other winning features; it takes just as much time to make as it does to soft boil an egg (five minutes). It’s delicious with a gently puddling yolk strewn over the top. It’s  also grand without the egg as a side for barbecued chicken, prawns, and both pink and white fish.

What you’ve got is a restrained balance of flavours; the mild aniseed of the fennel, sweetness of peas (frozen are fine- we’ve all got better things to do than pod peas), richness of parmesan and then a breath of fresh air from mint and lemon.

It also gives me an excuse to pull out the mandolin, my latest indulgence of kitchen tech for a very small London kitchen. The beauty of a mandolin isn’t just about playing Russian roulette with your finger tips (CAREFUL)- it’s how easily creates anorexic thin waftings of vegetables for salads. When it comes to fennel, this is a good thing. I know not everyone is as much of a fan of the white bulb as I am. (The Hungry One loves to tell a story about how a few years ago when I was a little stressed and strung out he came downstairs  to find me sitting in the glow of the open fridge door, gnawing on a fennel bulb like an apple.) That’s obviously not for everyone. By shaving it this thinly fennel becomes more about texture and freshness rather than a grating aniseed twang.

If you haven’t got a mandolin, I recommend using a vegetable peeler or the shaving attachment on your food processor to try and get the right sort of thickness.

This is the lightest yet of the ‘evangelical about pulses’ series I’ve been doing to break away from the crutches of white carbs for dinner. As for whether a pea really counts as a pulse, well, that’s a debate for another day.

What I do know is that this is bright, light and friendly food. It reminds me a lot of the shaved fennel, broad bean and pear salad that’s served at the sublime Sean’s Panaroma, overlooking Sydney’s Bondi Beach.

But best of all, this is a salad that gets along very well with a glass of dry pink wine. Now I’ve got the salad. I’ve got tortoiseshell glasses plucked out of my bag, ready to perch on my head. I’ve got the wine in the fridge. Just get me some sunshine.

Please.

Pea, fennel, mint, lemon and parmesan salad

Serves 1 (though easily doubles and triples, quadruples etc)

Shopping/foraging

Other pulse high, carb low dinner options

Chickpeas, broccolini, garlic, chilli and lemon

 

 

 

 

Black bean, pumpkin and coconut bowl

Mexican kidney bean salad