This a quick and easy post for a quick and easy recipe.
At this time of year I often notice that cooking becomes a lot more relaxed than in other seasons. There’s an abundance of fresh produce that needs very little attention to coax out its quality – in my experience, a little salt, olive oil and lemon juice, usually does the trick.
This recipe follows that rule. I picked up some fresh garden peas and french breakfast radishes from my local farm shop (our own peas and beans are still less than a foot high), plucked some mint from the garden, and pulled out the best bottle of olive oil we have. It really does pay to use the good stuff here – the more grassy and delicious the better. The same goes for the bread – I used a sourdough from our wonderful local baker and supporter of the Real Bread Campaign, The Haxby Bakehouse.
I’ve kept the cooking times down here as I really love the taste and texture of the asparagus and peas, and if they’re freshly harvested they really don’t need very long. If you do like your veggies a little softer then you can increase the boiling time, but I really would urge you not to overcook them or they’ll lose all the qualities that make them wonderful (I recently read one recipe that suggested boiling asparagus for seven minutes! Madness.).
This dish was also supposed to include broad beans, but Miss Poppy had other ideas and ran off with them to the garden. If you do have them they make a lovely addition – they just need blanching for three minutes – so pop them in a minute before the asparagus.
So without any further ado, on to the recipe…
Ingredients
A slice of good quality bread – I prefer sourdough
A clove of garlic, peeled
A handful of fresh garden peas
4 asparagus spears
2 or 3 radishes
8 mint leaves
Zest of half a lemon
Juice of a quarter of a lemon
1 tablespoon of olive oil
A pinch of salt & a good grind of pepper
Approximately a tablespoon of young goat’s cheese
Method
- Bring a pan of salted water to the boil.
- Put your bread onto a baking sheet in the oven, under the grill or into the toaster.
- Finely slice the radishes and the mint leaves and put into a bowl with the lemon zest and juice, olive oil and salt and pepper
- Slice the asparagus on the diagonal into inch long pieces and plunge into the boiling water. After approximately a minute add the peas and cook for a further minute. Drain into a sieve or colander.
- Take your toast out of the oven/grill/toaster and rub the top surface with the peeled garlic clove, so that it releases its flavour and fragrance into the bread. Now discard the clove.
- Add the peas and asparagus to the radishes, mint, lemon and oil, and stir to combine. Taste and add more salt, pepper, lemon or oil as desired.
- Tumble the pea and asparagus mixture onto your toast and top with dabs of cheese. Enjoy!
