Beans and pulses are nutritious, economical and I think they are delicious and incredibly versatile. But a quick look at my supplies reveals that my lentils, chickpeas, adzuki beans and so on have been imported from far-flung places: USA, Turkey and China. Hodmedods was set up five years ago to grow indigenous pulses and packs of their UK grown carlin peas sit in my cupboard, too. But even better, local project Grown in Totnes has started producing dried whole green peas grown just down the road from me. I’ve been using them in lots of different recipes.
This pâté is delicious on some homemade oatcakes, and if you have a batch of cooked peas it is so quick and easy to put together. Otherwise, it’s a good excuse to soak some peas.
Ingredients
- 200g cooked peas
- 3-4tbs cooked apple or more depending on how much of a sweet note you’d like
- 40g butter
- 15 sage leaves
Method
- Melt the butter in a small pan until sizzling
- Add the sage leaves and cook, swirling the pan to coat the leaves until crispy, for around 4-5 minutes. Reserve a few leaves and tablespoon of butter to garnish.
- Blitz the peas, apple, butter and sage in a blender, keep adding a little water (or cooking water from the peas) until you achieve a soft consistency
- Season well with salt and pepper
- Top with the reserved butter and leaves
With the exception of the salt and pepper, I made this with 100% local ingredients, peas from Dartington, apples from my neighbour, butter from Riverford and sage from my garden!
A little bit more….
- Replace the butter with olive oil and add nutritional yeast for a vegan version
- Include some gently fried until soft onion, celery or leek
- Raw apple could be used in place of cooked
- Add some more herbs when blending, a little parsley, thyme and/or marjoram
- A little soft cheese in the mix is lovely
- If using freshly cooked peas, this freezes beautifully
Kando Journal & Kitchen 