Honey Vinaigrette Spring Pea Salad

 

adapted from this recipe by Food on Fifth

We have a great local produce market not too far from us called the Hollygrove Market, and twice a week they offer a flat rate $25 box of seasonal produce from local farms. This week's box included a pound of pink-eye beans, which frankly I'd never heard of before. After scouring the internet, I ended up doing another one of my hodgepodge recipes where I mix and match recipes depending on what we like, and which ingredients we have on hand. I ended up substituting in the pink-eye beans and keeping the cooking time at 5 minutes, which gave this salad a nice crunch!

Also, I realize pea shoots might be a little hard to find if you don't live in the city, but I think you could easily substitute some baby spinach leaves and turn this into more of a traditional salad.

Spring Pea Salad
Serves 6-8

3 cups each pink-eye beans, and fresh or frozen green peas (if frozen, make sure they are No Sodium Added)
6-8 leaves of fresh mint
2 tbsp lemon juice
2 tsp lemon zest from rind
1/2 cup shelled unsalted pistachios
2 cups loosely packed green pea shoots (I used sunflower plant shoots because that's all I could find at Whole Foods)

Honey Vinaigrette
1/2 cup olive or avocado oil
1/2 cup apple cider vinegar
1 tbsp honey
2 tsp dijon mustard
Freshly ground pepper, to taste

Bring a large pot of water to a boil, and toss in the pink-eye beans and green peas. Cook for about 5 minutes. Pour beans and peas into a colander to drain. Rinse with cool running water, and leave to drain and cool down for about 10-15 minutes. Place in a large serving bowl.

Pour the olive oil, vinegar, honey, and mustard into a mason jar (or other container with a tight-fitting lid) and shake to emulsify. Season with fresh black pepper to taste, and set aside.

Roughly chop the mint leaves and add to the bowl of beans and peas, along with the lemon juice and zest. Cover and chill until read to serve.

When ready to serve, add in the pistachios, pea shoots, and vinaigrette, and gently toss.

Note: You can substitute frozen or fresh edamame or lima beans for the pink-eye beans - I was just using what I had on hand!