Spring salad with watercress dressing  recipe

Ingredients

  • 550g new potato, scrubbed
  • 800g young broad beans in the pod (to give about 200g/8oz shelled beans)
  • 200g fresh young asparagus
  • 400g young peas in the pod (to give about 100g/4oz shelled peas)
  • 90g pack prosciutto, sliced into ribbons
  • 125g bag mixed salad leaves
  • 100g pecorino cheese, shaved

For the dressing

  • 50g fresh watercress, roughly chopped
  • 6 tbsp extra-virgin olive oil
  • 2 tbsp cider vinegar
  • pinch sugar

Method

  • Cook the potatoes in boiling salted water for 10-15 minutes until tender. Drain and halve when cool enough to handle; set aside. Blanch the shelled broad beans and the asparagus in boiling salted water for 2-3 minutes. Drain in a sieve and cool under running cold water. Drain again, fish out the asparagus, then peel off the hard outer skins from the beans – make a nick in the tops and pop the beans out. Blanch the shelled peas in a separate pan for 1 minute. Toss the asparagus, beans, peas, potatoes and prosciutto together.

  • For the dressing, put all the ingredients in a blender or food processor and blitz until really smooth and bright green. Season with salt and pepper. To serve, toss the salad leaves with a spoonful or two of dressing and arrange on plates. Pile the vegetable mixture on top, season, then drizzle over the remaining dressing and scatter with the pecorino.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *