PEA, MINT, FETA DIPPER
Fresh peas in their pod or freshly pulled out the freezer, both worth like a dream tho fresh are an all day dance party in celebration of Spring and all that grows from the soil we walk.
Sweet, starchy little orbs blanched and refreshed in icy water to hang on to their in pod un tampered youthfulness, no wrinkles or colour dampening for these babies - blended with feta, mint, lemon zest and lots of nutty olive oil.
Man cannot live on hummus alone, other dips need time to shine their bright green sunlight, so here is this guy. You could replace the feta with toasted almond flakes if you wanted to remove the dairy, or add them in as well as the feta for even more spangle – crisp dunker, bruschetta pile up or an honourable crudité accompaniment, this delicious mulch is a born beauty queen, you can take her anywhere.
PEA, FETA, MINT DIP
600g frozen petit pois or fresh peas out of their pod
200g feta
1 unwaxed lemon
1 tsp salt
black pepper
2 cups olive oil
1 big bunch of mint
pinch of dry chilli flakes
Bring a pan of water to a fierce boil, add the peas and cook for about 5 mins. You do not want to cook them too much or they will loose their brilliant green
Drain the peas and refresh under cold water to halt the cooking and stop them going wrinkly
Shake the peas dry, keep a handful to the side and add the rest to your magimix with the salt, pepper, chilli flakes, feta and zest of the lemon
With the blade running slowly add 1.5 cups of the olive oil (in the same way as you would when making mayonnaise), you may not need all of it
The mixture will start to become creamy, throw in the mint leaves and the juice of the lemon, blend just enough to incorporate and check if you need more salt or lemon juice. I like to keep it quite course so would stop blending at this stage but you can keep going if you want a smoother dip.
Spread it out onto a plate with a well in the middle to fill with olive oil, scatter the peas you kept to the side on top, and sprinkle with sea salt/ bit more olive oil.
