
Chef Thomas
Broad Bean and Pea Salad with Mint and Lemon
Double-podded broad beans and sweet peas, dressed simply with torn mint, lemon, and good olive oil. The kind of bowl that tastes the way a June garden smells.
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Created by Chef Thomas
The old pub ploughman's, shaken loose from its board and laid across butter lettuce with a sharp mustard dressing, for the kind of lunch that feels like you've given yourself the afternoon off.
There's a weekend in late spring when the weather finally turns and you open the kitchen door for the first time in months. The garden smells of damp earth and cut grass. You don't want to cook, not really. You want to assemble. To put good things on a plate and carry it outside with a glass of something cold.
That's when I make this. It's a ploughman's lunch, which is to say it's cheese, pickle, bread, and whatever else belongs alongside them, except I've let it sprawl across a bed of butter lettuce and given it a dressing sharp enough to pull everything together. The components are the thing. Good cheddar with a proper bite. Branston pickle, which I won't apologise for. A soft-boiled egg with a yolk like amber. An apple, crisp and tart, because it cuts through the richness of the cheese in a way nothing else does.
This isn't a recipe so much as an arrangement. A conversation between things that have always belonged together. Your kitchen, your rules. Swap the radishes for a few cornichons. Add some good ham if you've got it. Leave the egg out if you'd rather. The market decides, and so do you.
I wrote it down in the notebook last May: cheddar, pickle, apple, sun. First lunch outside. That was enough to remember it by.
Quantity
2
Quantity
1 head
leaves separated and washed
Quantity
150g
broken into rough chunks
Quantity
1 (Cox's or Braeburn)
cored and sliced
Quantity
4
halved
Quantity
3-4 tablespoons
Quantity
a few
halved or quartered
Quantity
small handful
Quantity
thick slices, enough for two
Quantity
for the bread
at room temperature
Quantity
1 tablespoon
Quantity
3 tablespoons
Quantity
1 teaspoon
Quantity
to taste
Quantity
to taste
| Ingredient | Quantity |
|---|---|
| large eggs | 2 |
| butter lettuceleaves separated and washed | 1 head |
| sharp farmhouse cheddarbroken into rough chunks | 150g |
| eating applecored and sliced | 1 (Cox's or Braeburn) |
| pickled onionshalved | 4 |
| Branston pickle | 3-4 tablespoons |
| radishes (optional)halved or quartered | a few |
| watercress or cress | small handful |
| crusty bread | thick slices, enough for two |
| salted butterat room temperature | for the bread |
| cider vinegar | 1 tablespoon |
| extra virgin olive oil | 3 tablespoons |
| English mustard | 1 teaspoon |
| fine sea salt | to taste |
| black pepper | to taste |
Bring a small pan of water to a proper rolling boil. Lower the eggs in gently with a spoon. Six and a half minutes for a yolk that's just set at the edges but still golden and jammy in the centre. When the time's up, straight into cold water. Leave them there while you sort everything else out. Peel them when they've cooled enough to handle, which is also when the shell comes away most cleanly.
Whisk the cider vinegar, olive oil, and English mustard together in a small bowl or jar with a pinch of salt. The mustard does double duty here: it binds the dressing and gives it a quiet heat that belongs with cheddar the way a pub belongs on a corner. Taste it. If it needs more acid, add a few drops of vinegar. It should be sharp enough to stand up to the pickle and the cheese.
Break the cheddar into rough, craggy pieces with your hands or a knife. Don't slice it neatly. You want irregular chunks that catch the dressing and the pickle in their crevices. Core and slice the apple thinly. Halve the pickled onions. Halve or quarter the radishes. Tear the bread into thick slices and butter them generously while the butter is still soft enough to spread without tearing.
Lay the butter lettuce leaves across a wide plate or board, the kind with a bit of room. Scatter the cheddar, apple slices, pickled onions, and radishes over and among the leaves. Not arranged, just placed with some care, the way you'd set things out for someone to help themselves. Spoon the Branston pickle in two or three generous dollops. Halve the eggs and nestle them in. Tuck the watercress into any gaps. Drizzle the dressing over the leaves and the cheese, not the pickle. Serve with the buttered bread alongside.
1 serving (about 500g)
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