Spring Salad with Marinated Peas

Marinated peas from Ruffage

I used to not like peas very much but Ruffage has really changed my view on them. Turns out there are all sorts of ways to make them delicious, I just hadn’t discovered them yet. Besides delicious marinated peas, this salad has baby spinach, raw asparagus (if you haven’t tried asparagus raw, it is so good), radishes, parsley, basil, goat cheese, and ranch dressing. Yes, ranch dressing and it’s not even homemade ranch dressing, just a small quantity from whatever your favorite brand is. This salad feeds two for a good-sized meal, or would work well as a side for four.

Marinate the Peas

• 1 cup of peas (I always use frozen, and just defrost them under hot running water for a few minutes)

• 1 lemon

• 1/4 cup olive oil

• Salt

• Red pepper flakes

1. Put the peas in a small bowl, and zest and juice the lemon into the bowl.

2. Add the olive oil, some salt, and red pepper flakes (to taste).

3. Give everything a stir and allow to marinate while you work on the rest of the salad.

Prep Everything Else

• Half of a 5 oz/6 oz bag of spinach

• 1/2 pound of asparagus

• 3-4 small radishes

• Half a bunch of parsley (I strongly prefer curly parsley, but you should use whatever kind you like best)

• Handful of fresh basil leaves

1. If desired, roughly chop or tear the spinach leaves before putting in a large bowl. I always like to avoid giant spinach leaves, but you can skip this step if you don’t mind them.

2. Trim the tough ends of the asparagus and slice very thinly on the diagonal. I use a very aggressive diagonal line, almost trying to slice them vertically. Don’t worry about slicing the leafier end as much. Toss them into the bowl.

3. Trim the ends of the radishes and cut into matchstick-like pieces. If you don’t want as much crunch, go even thinner with these pieces. They can join the other veggies in the bowl as well.

4. Roughly tear the leaves of the parsley off their stems (I never worry about getting some small stems in there). Once all the leaves are off, give them a rough chop but leave them on the cutting board for now.

5. Attempt to chiffonade/julienne the basil. Pull the leaves off the stem and stack them on top of each other. Roll them up into a cylinder and slice the cylinder as thinly as desired (slicing with the stem in the leaf). I left my slices somewhat chunky. The basil can stay on the cutting board for now too.

Assembly

• 2 oz of goat cheese (or more, depending on your preferences)

• Ranch dressing (whatever your favorite kind is)

1. Assuming it’s been about 20 minutes (otherwise wait a little longer), pour the peas with their marinating liquid into the bowl. Toss everything to combine.

2. Add the herbs to the salad and give everything another toss.

3. Crumble the goat cheese over the salad, and toss yet again.

4. Finally, add the ranch dressing (for a salad of this size, I added very little—maybe only a tablespoon or so), toss one final time, serve, and enjoy!

As always, leave a comment to let me know how it went!