Alice Zaslavsky is sharing recipes with us, starting with a spring salad

Alice Zaslavsky has said yes to sharing some of her cookbook recipes with the SideStall community, credited to her, season by season. Alice is one of Australia's best-loved food writers and broadcasters, and she has spent years getting people excited about fresh, seasonal, veg-forward cooking on the radio, on the telly and in her cookbooks, which happens to be exactly what is sitting on the roadside stalls and farm gates near you.

The first one she is sharing is an easy spring salad, and spring is the right time for it. Peas, broad beans, snow peas, watercress and a sharp parmesan vinaigrette. The peas and greens are only just coming into season, so the plan is simple: you find the produce local, and Alice tells you what to do with it once it is there.

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Easy peasy spring salad with parmesan vinaigrette

From Salad for Days by Alice Zaslavsky.

Come springtime, a version of this makes its way to our table weekly. At that point in the season, when fresh peas and broad beans are bountiful, set aside some time to pod them yourself, or buy some prepodded. Equally, you could make this later in the season, towards cooler days, using frozen peas and broadies too. Smaller broadies early in the season don't need double podding, otherwise, do put the time in for the second pod, lest you serve up blister skin (yuck, sorry). The parmesan vinaigrette is very versatile as well. Give it a drizz over bitter leaves such as radicchio, or keep it as a little dipper for lightly steamed crudités.

Ingredients

• 200 g (7 oz) broad beans (fava beans), podded
• 100 g (3½ oz) peas (frozen or fresh)
• 100 g (3½ oz) snow peas (mangetout), topped
• 100 g (3½ oz) sugar snap peas, topped
• ½ salad onion, finely sliced with the grain
• 100 g (3½ oz) snow pea sprouts
• 1 bunch watercress, about 100 g (3½ oz), ends trimmed
• ¼ cup mint leaves, finely sliced
• ¼ cup parsley leaves, finely sliced

Parmesan vinaigrette

• 2 tablespoons white wine vinegar
• 1 to 2 garlic cloves, minced
• 1 teaspoon dijon mustard
• ¼ cup (60 ml) extra virgin olive oil
• 25 g (1 oz) parmesan cheese, finely grated

Final bits and bobs

• 10 g (3/8 oz) parmesan cheese, for puffing

Method

Fork together vinaigrette ingredients until combined. Season with salt and pepper. Bring a medium saucepan of water to the boil and tumble the podded broad beans in, then bring back to the boil for 2 to 4 minutes, depending on their size, until no longer chalky through the middle. Scoop out into a bowl and reserve. Drop the peas into the boiling water and cook for 4 minutes, whether they're fresh or frozen. Pop the snow peas and sugar snaps into a heatproof colander in the sink and pour the boiled water and peas over the top for an easy blanch. Once the broad beans are cool enough to handle, squeeze the flesh out of the skins by finding the crack and pushing towards it. Set aside. Give the vinaigrette a quick zhuzh to reincorporate and toss the greens through, then combine with the salad onion, snow pea sprouts, watercress, mint and parsley leaves just before serving, warm or at room temperature. Grate a final puff of parmesan over and finish with cracked pepper.

Images and text from Salad for Days by Alice Zaslavsky, photography by Rochelle Eagle. Murdoch Books RRP $45.00.

This recipe is from Salad for Days by Alice Zaslavsky. You can find it, and a lot more veg-forward cooking, in her cookbooks at alicezaslavsky.com/books.

Where to find the fresh bits

The greens are the whole point, so it is worth cooking this one from a stall. We cannot see what is on a table right now, so every note below says may be available. Check the stall page before you drive.

• Garlic for the vinaigrette: may be available from Haaseford Farms Garlic near Ironbank SA.
• Peas, broad beans, snow peas and salad onions come into season through spring. They were only just starting when we wrote this, so the best move is to open the app and see what has turned up at a stall near you.
• Watercress and soft herbs like mint and parsley: keep an eye on the greens growers near you as the weather warms.

If the fresh peas are not up yet where you are, Alice's recipe works with frozen peas too, so you are never really stuck.

Finding the ingredients this week

• Open the map. SideStall shows the stalls near you by distance, with sellers who are open now up front.
• Search the ingredient. Type peas or garlic and search matches what sellers have actually listed, with photos and prices.
• Check the stall page before you drive: hours, what they accept, one-tap directions to the gate.
• Favourite the good ones, so the next shop starts where this one finished.

No one near you yet? SideStall grows gate by gate, so it is worth another look in a few weeks.

This is the first of the recipes Alice is sharing with us this season, credited to her, tied to what is fresh near you. See the rest of the blog.

Download the SideStall app, free on iPhone and Android, and see what is on the tables near you.

Grow it yourself? List your stall on SideStall. It is free to start, there is no monthly fee to take payments, and being listed is how locals find your gate. Set up your stall.