Recipes › Peas (Garden) › Crushed Pea and Herb Salad with Feta, Cucumber and Toasted Seeds
Crushed Pea and Herb Salad with Feta, Cucumber and Toasted Seeds
A vivid, textural salad built around fresh peas that are half-crushed so they release their sweetness into the dressing while still holding enough shape to eat. It is sharp with lemon, creamy with feta, and lifted by a big handful of herbs. Ready in well under twenty minutes and substantial enough to serve as a light lunch on its own.
Peas (Garden) is in season now. More peas (garden) recipes, or see what to sow this month where you are.
Ingredients
- 500 garden peas, shelled weight, fresh
- 200 g feta, broken into rough chunks
- 1 cucumber, halved lengthways, seeds scraped out, sliced into half-moons
- 20 g fresh mint, leaves picked
- 20 g fresh flat-leaf parsley, leaves and fine stems roughly torn
- 10 g fresh dill, fronds picked
- 4 spring onions, thinly sliced
- 40 g mixed seeds (pumpkin and sunflower)
- 15 g sesame seeds
- 4 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
- 2 lemon, juice only
- 1 tsp runny honeyuse agave nectar to make vegan
- 1 pinch flaky sea salt and black pepper
Contains: sesame.
Method
- Blanch the garden peas in a pan of well-salted boiling water for 2 minutes, then drain and immediately plunge into a bowl of cold water to stop them cooking and set the colour. Drain thoroughly.About 4 min
- Toast all the seeds together in a dry frying pan over medium heat for 2–3 minutes, shaking frequently, until the sesame seeds are golden and the other seeds smell nutty. Tip onto a plate to cool.About 3 min
- Transfer two-thirds of the cooled peas to a bowl and use a fork or potato masher to crush them roughly — you want a mixture of fully crushed, half-crushed and whole peas. Leave the remaining third whole.About 2 min
- Whisk together the olive oil, lemon juice, honey, a good pinch of flaky salt and black pepper in a small bowl to make the dressing.About 1 min
- In a large bowl, combine the crushed and whole peas, cucumber, spring onions, mint, parsley and dill. Pour over the dressing and toss gently but thoroughly.About 2 min
- Spread the salad onto a large platter. Scatter over the feta chunks and then the toasted seeds. Serve immediately.
Tips
- The half-crushing step is key — it means some peas dissolve into the dressing, making everything taste more intensely of pea, while the whole ones give you freshness and texture.
- Scraping the seeds from the cucumber keeps the salad from going watery within minutes of dressing — worth the extra 30 seconds.
- If you are making this ahead, keep the dressing, seeds and feta separate. Dress it no more than 10 minutes before serving.
Ring the changes
- To make this vegan, swap the feta for a good plant-based alternative or use 1 ripe avocado, sliced, and swap honey for agave nectar.
- Add 150g of cooked and cooled puy lentils to make it more substantial and higher in protein.
Keeping it
Best eaten immediately once dressed. Undressed components can be stored separately in the fridge for up to 1 day.
In the app this recipe finds you
Log what you've picked and GrowMore CookMore matches it to 1,918 more recipes like this one, tells you what's ready before the frost gets it, and keeps the freezer honest. Free to start.
More from the same crop
A proper summery risotto where sweet garden peas carry as much weight as the prawns, folded through at the end so they stay bright and tender. Tarragon brings an anise note that lifts the whole thing without overpowering. This is weekend cooking that feels special but is genuinely achievable.
45 min · medium · Peas (Garden)A vivid, bright green soup that celebrates peas at their absolute sweetest. Blended until silky smooth and finished with fresh mint and a swirl of crème fraîche, this is summer in a bowl. It comes together in under 25 minutes and tastes like you spent all afternoon on it.
25 min · easy · Peas (Garden)This is the kind of thing you throw together on a summer evening when you have a bowlful of fresh peas and a loaf of decent bread. The peas are smashed roughly — not blended smooth — so they keep their texture and vivid sweetness, and the whipped ricotta underneath makes each bite indulgent and creamy. It works as a starter, a light lunch, or a generous snack.
20 min · easy · Peas (Garden)
Allotment keeper in the North East of England, the voice behind the Tony C Smith YouTube channel, and the gardener who built GrowMore CookMore. Club numbers on this page update as members log their plots. Last updated 4 April 2026.