4 as appetizer
Whenever we are lucky enough to visit our friends in New Zealand, I am always impressed at their creativity in combining fresh produce in ways that is not necessarily intuitive for me. So for example mixing fresh mint into salads. The only way my mother used mint was to brew a tea, but never did it make it into our salad bowls. Here is a delicious recipe that is inspired by my friend Carmel featuring fava beans (or broad beans as they are called there), English peas, fresh mint and a little goat cheese. I can see a dedicated mint post from her in the near future!
Ingredients:
1 cup, or about 1 pound shelled fava beans
1 cup, or about 1 pound shelled peas
1/2 cup fresh mint leaves, thinly sliced
1/4 cup gresh goat cheese
Juice from 1/2 lemon
1 tablespoon olive oil
Salt and pepper to taste
Instructions:
Blanch fava beans for about 3 minutes in simmering water. Using a slotted spoon, remove them from the pot and rinse with cold water.
Blanch peas in the same simmering water for about 3 minutes. Drain and rinse with cold water.
Toss fava beans, peas, mint and goat cheese along with the lemon juice and olive oil.
Season to taste with salt and pepper.
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