Cookbook Club – The Kitchen Diaries

For our first cookbook of 2019, we chose Nigel Slater’s The Kitchen Diaries, which was probably appropriate to kick off the new year as in it he chronicles a year of his own cooking and eating. You can cook a lot of food in a year, so there were an abundance of recipes to choose from. You can see all the ones we got to sample on my Cookbook Club site. For now – my dish!

The Peas with Lemon and Mint initially caught my eye because it looked like a unique but tasty take on how to serve peas. I’d recently had a conversation with some friends who said they hated peas and were baffled when I said they were delicious. I got to thinking that peas seem only to be served in the most basic preparation – with some salt – or thrown in with a bunch of other ingredients almost as an afterthought. I liked the idea of peas as the centerpiece of a crafted dish. And then I saw how easy this recipe was and that sealed the deal.

I simmered peas, salt, olive oil, and water until the liquid was mostly cooked away. The recipe said to cook for about 8 minutes. I simmered for about 6, and next time would use less water and do it for even less time, as the peas just need to be warmed through and I like them to stay bright green.

Then I added lemon juice and stirred in mint leaves.

Done. Easiest recipe I have done for Cookbook Club to date. But also a tasty take on peas with fresh flavors that would make it a nice side to accompany a heavier meat dish.

I would note that it makes a tiny portion. Nigel Slater says it serves 2-3… I could easily have eaten the whole amount by myself.