Spring salad with watercress dressing

Contains pork – recipe is for non-Muslims only

Savour all the flavours of an Italian spring with this salad with a British twist

  • Ready in 35-40 minutes
  • Serves 4
  • Easy

Nutrition per serving

  • kcal 493
  • fat 31g
  • saturates 9g
  • carbs 31g
  • sugars 0.5g
  • fibre 7g
  • protein 25g
  • salt 1.57g

Ingredients

  • 550g new potatoes, scrubbed
  • 800g young broad beans in the pod (to give about 200g/8oz shelled beans)
  • 200g fresh young asparagus
  • 400g young peas in the pod (to give about 100g/4oz shelled peas)
  • 90g pack prosciutto, sliced into ribbons
  • 125g bag mixed salad leaves
  • 100g pecorino cheese, shaved
  • 50g fresh watercress, roughly chopped
  • 6 tbsp extra-virgin olive oil
  • 2 tbsp cider vinegar
  • pinch sugar

Method

  1. Cook the potatoes in boiling salted water for 10-15 minutes until tender. Drain and halve when cool enough to handle; set aside. Blanch the shelled broad beans and the asparagus in boiling salted water for 2-3 minutes. Drain in a sieve and cool under running cold water. Drain again, fish out the asparagus, then peel off the hard outer skins from the beans – make a nick in the tops and pop the beans out. Blanch the shelled peas in a separate pan for 1 minute. Toss the asparagus, beans, peas, potatoes and prosciutto together.

  2. For the dressing, put all the ingredients in a blender or food processor and blitz until really smooth and bright green. Season with salt and pepper. To serve, toss the salad leaves with a spoonful or two of dressing and arrange on plates. Pile the vegetable mixture on top, season, then drizzle over the remaining dressing and scatter with the pecorino.

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