Killer Salad Recipes

Crayfish and pea shoot salad is a light salad with very few ingredients, but it’s very tasty and can be served on its own for a light lunch, or even as a starter for a 3 course dinner. When I made it today I wanted to try something new, so I made a pea and chive pesto to go with it. I also tried something I hadn’t tried before with a roasted red pepper, but more of that later.

For the Crayfish and pea shoot salad, simply place equal amounts of crayfish tails and pea shoots into a bowl and lightly toss with some lemon olive oil. That’s it! Ridiculously easy but tasty and satisfying.

Pea shoots are the tender vine tips of green or garden peas and are eaten as a vegetable. They can be eaten fresh or cooked and make a good alternative to spinach. They have a delicate pea flavour, and are becoming more popular. You should be able to find them in any large supermarket.

To make the pesto, boil 250g of garden peas, for a few minutes, drain and allow to cool. Once cooled place in a bowl and blend with 50g of pine nuts, 50g of grated Parmesan cheese, a handful of chopped chives, 1 clove of garlic, crushed and enough olive oil to make a smooth paste. I used a hand blender for this, but you can also place all the ingredients in a regular blender, just remember to add the oil slowly until you get the right consistency. The pesto is now ready to eat.

Now, although the crayfish and pea shoot salad looks very pretty, the pesto looks like, well, a pesto, which in my opinion is a bit boring, I like a bit more colour. So I decided to follow instructions, from a magazine article, I had seen years ago and cut out to keep, to make a flower from a red pepper for decoration - an edible decoration of course

To make the edible pepper flower, cut a red pepper into 4, remove the seeds, cover in foil and roast for about 20 minutes. Once cooled remove the skin, and lay the pieces out flat. From them cut 5 circular shapes, I made mine about an inch or so in diameter. Then simply place them in a flower shape, slightly overlapping each other. I used a small dot of course grain mustard to make the centre of the flower, and used chives to give the impression of a stem and leaves.

To one side of the flower I place some of the pesto, topped with some chopped chives, and to the other side the crayfish and pea shoot salad.

You could also make some Melba toast to go with this if you wanted. I find it a bit dry, but I know others like it with pesto.

Enjoy

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