Celebrating Great British Pea Week: Our Favourite Reci-peas

From 8th to 14th July, we will be celebrating Great British Pea Week. If you haven’t heard of it before, you’re in for a treat – only in its third year, this annual celebration aims to increase awareness and understanding of the provenance and heritage of peas.

To kick off the Week,  we’re sharing some of our team’s favourite reci-peas, which feature these little nutritional wonders and are perfect for this warm summer weather.

Remember to stop by the farm shop to stock up on fresh organic peas (as well as plenty of other delicious vegetables). Happy munching.

Pea and Goat’s Cheese Salad

Serves 4 as a starter or light lunch

500g very fresh peas
3 tsp olive oil
10-12 spring onions, trimmed and halved lengthways
1 tbsp lemon juice
Sea salt & freshly ground black pepper
200g Ryefield goats cheese
1tsp thyme leaves, roughly chopped

Bring a saucepan of water to the boil, drop in the peas and cook for a maximum of 2 minutes, then drain well.
Heat 1 tbsp olive oil in a frying pan, add the spring onions and sweat gently for 4/5 minutes, until softened.
For the dressing, in a large bowl, combine the rest of the olive oil with the lemon juice and plenty of salt & pepper.
Toss the warm peas and spring onions in the dressing, then divide between individual serving bowls. Crumble the cheese and scatter over the salad, along with the thyme. Serve warm or at room temperature

(Recipe taken from River Cottage recipe book ‘Veg Patch’ – available in the farm shop shippon for £16.99)

Umami dressed bean salad

Umami dressing
75ml Extra Virgin Olive Oil
2 cloves Garlic, peeled and cut in half
1-2 tbsp Sherry Vinegar
½ tbsp Maple Syrup
½ tbsp Fava Umami Paste
A good grind of Black Pepper

The salad
300g Cooked Whole Beans such as Red Haricots or Fava Beans
200g French Beans, trimmed of stalks
200g Runner Beans, de-strung and sliced
200g Mangetout
200g Podded Fresh Peas
200g Podded Fresh Broad Beans
Handful of Parsley
Handful of Mint

Warm the olive oil and garlic in a small saucepan until you begin to smell the garlic (the idea is to infuse the oil rather than fry the garlic).
Remove the garlic, chop finely and spoon into a jar with a tightly fitting lid. Add the oil along with the remaining dressing ingredients, shake to bring everything together. Taste, you may like to tinker around with the balance, add a little salt if you like but the Umami paste brings so much salty, savoury depth that I doubt you will need it.
Warm the pulses in their cooking juices or any liquid from the tin, drain and then pour over the umami dressing. The warmed pulses will sup up the flavours beautifully.
Now blanch or steam your green veg’, just until tender and then plunge into cold water to keep the vibrant colour. If you are using frozen peas or beans they will need less than a minute in boiling water from frozen
It really is worth double-podding your broad beans to reveal the dazzlingly bright, sweet flesh within.
Chop the mint and parsley roughly.
Mix the greens carefully with the dressed beans and herbs (keeping a few leaves back to garnish the salad with just before serving)
And of course, you could add sunblush tomatoes, radishes, asparagus, new potatoes, quinoa, pearled spelt or any other bits you feel like.

(Recipe inspired by Hodmedod’s British-grown pulses – this salad is also available every day in the farm shop café)