Summer salads

February 22, 2007

Summer is salad season and here are a couple of salads to go with hot weather barbecues.

The French call snow peas mange tout, which means “eat all” and that’s just what you do with these sweet green peas. There’s no need to pod them. Just pull off the stalk end, removing the string along the bottom edge if there is one.

Snow peas are often used in Asian dishes. Mostly the pea pods are flat and the peas themselves are small and immature though some varieties have a more developed pea.

Choose snow peas with bright green pods. It’s best to cook them within a day or two of purchase as their sugar starts converting to starch once they are off the vine.

Don’t overcook them. You can give them a quick nuke in the microwave though I prefer to place them in a steamer over boiling water, cook them for no more than two or three minutes then refresh them quickly in iced water. This leaves them a beautiful bright green with an al dente crunch - perfect for the first of today’s salads.

I recently shifted house and the biggest wrench was leaving behind the cherry tomatoes that were just beginning to ripen in the garden. There were masses of little green marbles all over the vines and I could see it was going to be a bumper crop like last year’s which kept me supplied with a bowl of flavour-packed fruit most days for several weeks.

Cherry tomatoes look good in a salad and I love them teamed with feta cheese and basil.

Snowpea and sesame salad

250g snowpeas
1/2 red pepper
1 teaspoon toasted sesame oil
1 tablespoon brewed soy sauce
1 teaspoon oyster sauce
2 tablespoon lemon juice
1 tablespoon mirin
1 teaspoon sugar
1/2 teaspoon grated ginger
1-2 teaspoons toasted sesame seeds

Wash the snowpeas and remove the stalks. Slice the red peppers. Steam the peas and pepper slices for three minutes then refresh in iced water. Drain.

Whisk the remaining ingredients together, apart from the sesame seeds. Check that the seasoning is to your taste and adjust if necessary.

Toss the snowpeas, peppers and dressing together then place in a shallow bowl, pour over the dressing and sprinkle with the toasted sesame seeds.

Cherry tomato and feta salad

2 cups cherry tomatoes, halved
1 cup cubed feta cheese
1/2 cup pitted green olives
3 cups assorted salad greens
1 cup basil leaves

Mix all the ingredients together in a salad bowl. Drizzle with a red wine vinegar and olive oil vinaigrette just before serving.

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