Minted Pea & Feta Dip

Bruschetta with minted pea & feta and Marion's beetroot click here for the recipe

Some of us are old enough to remember Alan Bennet's invention, the butter-bean whip, it has become a standard joke because the woman who kept threatening to bring this obscure dish to any soirée she was invited to, was herself a figure of fun. Ever since the use of the word whip, it has been out of bounds which is unfortunate since it best describes this pea and feta concoction and the word "dip" is a poor substitute for which I apologise now. Whatever you feel free to call it, this simple mixture of cooked peas, feta cheese, garlic and olive oil is a pleasing colour and above all an easy thing for folk to dip things into, to be served with drinks.

For this recipe you will need;
400g of frozen peas
200g of feta cheese
A dozen large mint leaves
2 cloves of garlic
2 tablespoons of olive oil
season with bouillon powder or salt and white pepper.

Place the cooked and cooled peas in a food processor with the mint leaves and garlic and process until you have a smooth puree, add the cheese and puree again for a minute before trickling in the olive oil. Finally adjust the flavour with seasoning, be careful as the feta cheese is already on the salty side. I, as readers of my blog will know, use Marigold bouillon powder in place of salt wherever possible, it reduces the amount of sodium in my diet even though it is itself made up of 17% salt. Drizzle with a little more olive oil and serve with crackers or crudité, or on a bruschetta as above.

Notes:
You can substitute broad beans for the peas in this dish and it's also possible to reduce the amount of processing time so that you have a more textured finished dish.