Spring Pea Salad
Hellooooo Spring! She’s finally here in all her glory. It’s been a horrific winter in New England. I mean, Boston? Seriously. Mother Nature was not your friend this year, huh? Well, now it’s all over and it’s time for paleo picnics and lots of spring veggies. 
Peas? Wait… Are those paleo?! Okay, okay. Calm your paleo police sirens. Peas are technically legumes due to their botanical makeup. And legumes are technically not paleo. But hear me out.
Why do I consider peas to be paleo? Because 1. I’m not the paleo police and 2. I firmly believe that you can follow a paleo diet while tailoring it to your own style. No diet should be black and white. If it was that way wouldn’t we all be out hunting our meat and gathering berries? There would be no such thing as picking up a bag of plantain chips as a snack or baking paleo muffins.
On a food-related reason, however, peas are picked and eaten unripe. They are young. They are fun. They are in edible pods. They aren’t dried on the vine and require soaking and cooking before consumption like kidney beans. Did you know kidney beans can actually cause harm due to their lectin density? Green beans and peas, on the other hand, are usually well tolerated in comparison to the ‘real’ legumes. I don’t know about you, but beans make me… well… beans, beans, the musical fruit. Each toot is like an alarm saying “shouldn’t have eaten that”. If my gut doesn’t like it then I don’t eat it. My gut is okay with green beans, snow peas, snap peas, etc, so I eat them. Even Whole30 is accepting of them.
This recipe is SO DELICIOUS that I promise you’ll fall in love with peas.
INGREDIENTS
- 8 oz bag snow peas
- 8 oz bag sugar snap peas
- 28 oz bag fresh or frozen green peas
- 1/3 cup shallot, (about 1 large shallot) chopped
- 1 lb pancetta or thick-cut bacon, chopped
- 1 can full fat coconut milk
- Juice and zest from 1/2 lemon
- 1/4 cup basil, chopped
- Sea salt and pepper to taste
DIRECTIONS
- Prep the snow peas and snap peas by cutting the ends off. Otherwise, keep them whole.
- Blanch all peas in boiling water for 4 minutes. Drain and immediately add peas to an ice water bath. This helps them keep their green color while only cooking them slightly. Now they aren’t raw, but still have some crunch.
- In a large cast iron pot saute bacon and shallots.
- When the bacon is fully cooked drain have the bacon fat and discard.
- Lower the heat to medium-low and add peas.
- Next, add top part of the canned coconut milk – the solidified milk only. Save the rest for smoothies.
- Add lemon juice, zest, and basil ribbons. Stir to combine.
- Serve warm.
Thank you for this delicious sounding recipe! I’ll have to try this myself sometime soon too!.
The point of the Paleo diet is, and I feel some people forget this, to not only diet, but to eat delicious foods at the same time. Paleo is the only diet I’ve come across that cuts out food groups, yet still focusses on everyone’s need to eat great food.
I’m a real foodie, and would not survive on any other diet, but Paleo has been very good for me. I’ve written about a couple of my favourite cookbooks here: http://cookbook-reviews.net/review-the-paleo-grubs-book/
Pingback: 10 Best One-Pot Paleo Meals | Mangia Paleo