Recipes › Peas (Mangetout) › Warm Mangetout Salad with Crispy Bacon, Soft-Boiled Egg, and Grain Mustard Dressing
Warm Mangetout Salad with Crispy Bacon, Soft-Boiled Egg, and Grain Mustard Dressing
This is the kind of salad that satisfies like a proper meal. Briefly blanched mangetout form the backbone, topped with crispy smoked bacon lardons, a soft-boiled egg, and a punchy grain mustard and sherry vinegar dressing. It comes together quickly enough for a weekday lunch but looks impressive enough for a summer dinner party starter.
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Ingredients
- 350 mangetout, topped and tailed
- 200 g smoked bacon lardons
- 4 large eggs
- 1 shallot, very finely diced
- 2 tsp wholegrain mustard
- 1 tbsp sherry vinegaror use a good quality red wine vinegar
- 4 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
- 1 tsp fine sea salt
- 1 pinch freshly ground black pepper
- 10 g flat-leaf parsley, roughly chopped
Contains: eggs, mustard, sulphites.
Method
- Bring a medium saucepan of well-salted water to the boil. Gently lower in the eggs and cook for exactly 7 minutes for a jammy yolk, then transfer immediately to a bowl of cold water and leave to cool for 5 minutes before peeling. Set aside.About 12 min
- Meanwhile, make the dressing. In a small bowl or jam jar, whisk together the wholegrain mustard, sherry vinegar, and the finely diced shallot. Slowly whisk in the olive oil until emulsified. Season with salt and pepper and set aside.About 3 min
- Fry the bacon lardons in a dry frying pan over a medium-high heat for 5 to 6 minutes, stirring occasionally, until golden and crispy. Remove with a slotted spoon and drain briefly on kitchen paper. Leave the pan on the heat.About 6 min
- Add the mangetout to the hot bacon fat in the frying pan and toss over a high heat for 2 minutes until just beginning to soften at the edges but still vibrantly green and crunchy. Season lightly with salt.About 2 min
- Arrange the warm mangetout on a serving platter or divide between four plates. Scatter over the crispy lardons and the chopped parsley.
- Halve each egg lengthways and place two halves on each portion. Spoon the dressing generously over everything and serve immediately while the mangetout are still warm.
Tips
- Seven minutes in boiling water gives you a set white and a yolk that is glossy and just-set rather than chalky — what the French call mollet. Use room-temperature eggs and the timing will be reliable.
- Cooking the mangetout in the residual bacon fat rather than a clean pan gives them a savoury depth that makes the whole salad more than the sum of its parts.
- Make the dressing up to an hour ahead and leave it at room temperature — it only improves as the shallot macerates in the vinegar.
Ring the changes
- For a vegetarian version, skip the bacon and instead fry 100g of halloumi cut into small cubes in olive oil until golden — the salty chew is a different but equally good contrast.
- A handful of toasted hazelnuts (30g) scattered over at the end adds welcome crunch and makes the salad more substantial as a main course.
Keeping it
Best eaten immediately while the mangetout and eggs are warm. The components can be prepped ahead — dressing, boiled eggs, and cooked lardons can all be refrigerated for up to 24 hours and assembled just before serving.
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