Medley of Spring Vegetables from ‘The Food of Spain’ by Claudia Roden
By Leslie Brenner
Asparagus! Favas! Peas! Artichokes!
Excuse the over-the-top enthusiasm, but you know how it is when you’re a cook — a murmur of spring in the air, and your mind goes straight to the vegetable garden.
By the time March blows in (or even before), asparagus arrives from Mexico and California, and sugar snap peas, usually ubiquitous, do a great job of evoking a springlike mood.
But until we’re in full-on spring (which officially begins in the Northern Hemisphere this year on March 20), and fresh English peas, favas and artichokes fill the market bins, feel free to accept an assist from the freezer section or even a can. We won’t tell. In fact we’ve been known to keep cheating from time to time with frozen peas and canned artichoke hearts all season (and even all year) long.
A medley that evokes spring
Assemble the whole cast — peas, favas, asparagus and artichokes — and you can make the fantastic spring veg medley shown above. Adapted from Claudia Roden’s The Food of Spain, it’s based on a traditional menestra de primavera — a spring vegetable soup — but Roden’s spin is more like a soupy side-dish. Or read on for ideas for dishes featuring solo frozen peas, artichoke hearts or favas.
We often find favas — even out of season — in our local Middle-Eastern market. They’re large, fuzzy green pods, usually at least six inches / 15 centimeters long. Choose the ones with smaller beans inside the pods (just feel them with your fingers). The large beans are too hard; the small ones cook up sweet and tender, and they’re also delicious raw. In France, they’re eaten with crusty bread, sweet butter and a little fleur de sel. (Do try this!)
Whether you eat them raw or cook them, you’ll need to peel them — twice. Once by removing the favas from those fuzzy pods. And then, pierce the skin of each bean with the tip of a small knife and slip off the jacket to liberate the shinier small bean inside. (Discard the skins and pods.) It’s labor-intensive, but worth it, if you’re up for it. (You can also drop them, still in their jackets, in boiling water, blanch 10 seconds or so, shock in cold water and they come off pretty easiily.)
If you do want to cheat (and I heartily recommend it!), it’s not always easy to find frozen favas — again, I find them in our Middle-Eastern market. Sometimes they’re peeled (yay!), and sometimes they’re out of the pods, but still wear their jackets, which is a drag. (These I run hot water over to thaw, then peel.) And sometimes it’s hard to tell from the bag whether they’re peeled or not.)
For the artichokes, I usually choose canned — those in jars are usually marinated in olive oil, and for Roden’s dish, we’re looking for plain ones. You can also sometimes find them frozen. To make the dish, you gently simmer the spring veg, then separately make a light white sauce with onion, garlic, white wine, a little serrano or other ham and some of the broth from the veg. Cook that sauce till velvety, and pour it over the brothy vegetables. It’s really nice.
A Levantine way with favas
Or maybe you want to take that nice bag of frozen favas and turn them into something easy and delightfully Lebanese. In that case, try this recipe adapted from Reem Kassis’ wonderful 2021 cookbook The Arabesque Table. Kassis has us warm olive oil with garlic, add the just-thawed favas, cook briefly and toss with lime juice and a lot of chopped cilantro.
Also from The Arabesque Table, I love this super quick and easy recipe starring canned or frozen artichoke hearts. They mingle with shrimp, along with fresh and preserved lemon and turmeric, for a dreamy main course.
RECIPE: Artichoke Shrimp with Preserved Lemon and Turmeric
Eat your peas!
Frozen peas? Oh, please — I eat them all year long. So do most chefs I know, even really famous ones.
My favorite frozen pea trick is turning them into a ridiculously easy yet surprisingly elegant soup based on traditional French potage Saint Germain.
Frozen peas and fresh mint also star, along with ricotta and lemon, in this adorable dip. Set it out — on a day that feels like spring, or almost — with toasted dark rye, crostini or crackers. No matter what the calendar says, spring will have arrived.
RECIPE: Pea-Ricotta Dip