Warm weather and diets require salads! If like me, you overindulged over the Christmas period and promised yourself to be "better" in 2021 then this English pea salad is for you! Eating healthy food doesn't need to be boring, loads of fresh herbs, some citrus zest, creamy greek yoghurt and fresh cucumber makes this salad simply delicious! Need protein? Why not grill up some healthy chicken or pork tenderloin to go along with it too.
sponsored by Marri Wood Park, Yallingup, WA
Why I Love This Pea Salad
It's fresh, healthy, quick & easy to make and pairs really well with the wine below 😉 I always have cucumber in the fridge (the 4yr old eats a ton of it!) and peas are a staple in the freezer too. So, grab a few herbs from the garden and you are well on the way to making a deliciously healthy English pea salad.
What Cucumber Should I Use?
Typically when you go to the store you will find the Lebanese cucumber - short, sweeter, thin dark green skin with small seeds or the Continental cucumber - longer, dark skin with more seeds to it. I prefer the continental variety but that just what I grew up on and the self proclaimed princess eats too but honestly either or cucumber will work.
One thing to point out is cucumbers contain a lot of moisture so best not to salt them or else you will have a watery pool in the salad. I like to use finishing salt for this.
How To Make Cucumber Ribbons
Looks "fancy" and/or complicated but it's pretty darn easy. Using either a sharp knife, mandoline or a peeler just slice the cucumber into wafter thin slices. It really couldn't be any easier.
If using a peeler bare in mind that you will need to rotate the cucumber during the peeling process or else you won't maximise the amount of cucumber you will get for the English pea salad. If using a mandoline make sure to use the safety attachment to hold the cucumber so as not to cut yourself!
Can This English Pea Salad Be Made In Advance?
Always the question - you have friends over for dinner or you are trying to impress on date night and you don't want the kitchen to look like a bomb site! My advice is to prep the individual components ahead of time. Defrost your peas, slice your sugar snaps, pick the herbs/lettuce, mix the yoghurt & lemon juice and slice your cucumbers. Leave all these ingredients in air tight containers and once your guests arrive all you need to do is combine them together. Cooking (or salad making) is all about having everything prepped and ready to go so you can combine it all together.
Follow these simple tips and you will have a crazy good English Pea Salad in front of your dinner guests in no time!
Marri Wood Park Winery
Those of you who have followed the blog regularly, hi Mum & Dad! Would have seen me make recipes to pair with wines from Marri Wood Park winery in the past. Delicious crumbed veal cutlet with their Chenin blanc and most recently grilled fish tacos with their "bratty nat".
The winery is situated in Yallingup, Western Australia. It's a famiy run winery, 100% biodynamic and all grapes are handpicked which means there is a considerable amount of love and care going into every bottle. Oh, and not to mention the bottles are all labelled by hand so serious love there too.
Wine Pairing
So, this recipe was specifically created to pair with the Marri Wood Park Sauvignon Blanc. Truth be told I'm not a huge fan of Savvy B. I think it went through a period where every house wine in restaurants was an NZ sauvignon and the market was too flooded. Having not drunk one in a while I was blown away with the quality of this one. So much so I am very happy to have another bottle in the fridge!
Sauvignon blanc is typically made to "drink now" and that's definetly what happened when I cracked this bottle - it didn't stand a chance! Notes of nap peas, asparagus, lemon/lime and blackcurrant leaf on the mid palate. A little chalkiness on the finish, good minerality and as expected plenty of juicy acidity to back it up.
All I can say is get yourself onto their website, sign up to their mailing list, pick up a few Savvy B's and whip up my delicious English pea salad!
Alternative Salad Recipes
Blown away by how tasty by English pea salad is/was and want to kick on with some equally delicious ones then check out these bad boys below!
Grilled Octopus Salad by yours truly
Sweet Potato Quinoa Salad by Alexandra Cook of 'It's Not Complicated Recipes'
Panzanella Salad by yours truly
Peach, Proscuitto & Goat's Cheese Salad by Jaimie Archer of 'Jaimie Eats'
Roasted Beetroot Feta Salad by Marie Roffey of 'Sugar Salt Magic'
Grilled Squid Salad by yours truly
Happy Cooking & Happy Eating Friends!!
Ingredients
- 2 continental cucumber
- 8 snow peas
- 75 g frozen peas defrosted
- 50 g feta
- 2 tbsp lemon juice
- 1 lemon zest zested
- 1-200 g greek yoghurt 2 or 4ppl
- 1 tsp olive oil
- 1 handful mint
- 1 handful dill
- 1 handful parsley
- salt & pepper
- sourdough bread - optional
Essential Tools
- Chopping board
- Chef Knives
- peeler
- large mixing bowl
- zester/microplane
- Measuring utensils
Instructions
- Using a peeler, slice the cucumber lengthways into ribbons
- Cut snowpeas thinly lengthways, also know as julienne
- Mix yoghurt, pinch of salt & 1 tbsp lemon juice together
- Place peeled cucumber, peas, snowpeas, herbs, olive oil & 1 tsp lemon juice in a bowl and toss together
- Place a heaped spoon of yoghurt on a plate, top with cucumber mix, sprinkle with feta and finish with lemon zest, cracked black pepper & pinch of salt
- Serve with some nice crusty bread
Notes
Tips/Tricks
- cucumbers have a lot of water in them so I usually add finishing salt to the dish rather than salt the cucumber directly
- use only 100g of yoghurt if serving 2ppl but 200g if serving 4ppl
- you can substitute Lebanese cucumbers in the recipe
- add some grilled chicken or pork loin to this dish and you have a delicious main course dinner
Love how light and fresh this salad is - we've got lots of cucumbers growing in the garden at the moment so this would be a delicious way to use them!
Awesome - would love to see it when you make it!!
Yum, our garden is producing more cucumbers than we can eat atm, plus snow peas, parsley, mint and lemons, I reckon I could make this mostly from the garden. Love the 'fancy' cucumbers ribbons 🙂
Sounds like we have a winner!!