Minted peas are lovely. Minted peas with chilli are awesome. Minted peas with chilli and feta! Boom!! You’ve just hit the pea jackpot!
These are my Greek inspired minted peas with feta and chilli, and a couple of other bits of course… my Greek minted peas were born out of a smash-and-grab impromptu afternoon lunch.
But it works. Which of course it should. Peas, mint and chilli have long been friends. But with the peas being so sweet the sharpness of the feta just contradicts the sweetness of the peas wonderfully.
Obviously mint and chilli are just about the most social of ingredients you could hope to meet, they pretty much get on with everyone.
Incredibly easy but also a great emergency side dish (or stick a piece of fish or meat on top and it’s a delightful meal done in minutes), the reason it is so handy is everyone has a packet of frozen peas in the back of their freezer. Good quality feta cheese bought sealed from a supermarket will last months unopened and just grab some dried mint and chilli flakes.
Note: I’ve said in the recipe to add some broad beans or fine beans to the peas. You could do it with just peas but I think it works best with some variety; but any other green bean would work including spinach.
Greek Minted Peas Recipe:
Ingredients — serves 6:
750g petit pois (or garden peas)
250g broad beans or fine green beans
1 tbl butter
2 tbl extra virgin olive oil
1/2 tbl lemon juice
1 tbl dried chilli flakes
15g (small handful) flat leaf parsley (or coriander or basil) chopped
30g fresh mint chopped
100g feta cheese broken up (not too much)
Seasoning
Greek Minted Peas Method:
- Cook the peas and other green beans in salted water as per instructions on packet (just a few minutes)
- Once cooked, drain all the water and let steam dry for a few minutes.
- Whilst still warm add the butter, olive oil, chopped herbs and chilli flakes and gently stir combine all the ingredients.
- Add the feta and gently fold through – you want to keep the feta fairly chunky when served.
- Finally add a little of the lemon juice and salt and pepper and taste for the right balance.
Goes incredibly well with my rosemary and garlic pork chops!