A fresh salad like this goes so well with almost anything, from crispy Pan Fried Fish to Schnitzel, Steak to Baked Chicken Breasts. But it’s so good, I can even have it as a light meal with some warm buttered bread rolls on the side!
Quite often after going to a restaurant I enjoyed I will look for a recipe to make the dishes at home. This Pea, Cabbage, Parmesan and Mint Salad is from a restaurant called Mr Wolf in Melbourne, Australia, owned by Karen Martini, a talented Australian chef. However, I have adapted it to reduce the oil to what I think is the required amount – the original recipe called for 6 tablespoons of olive oil (6!! That’s almost 1/2 cup!!) which I think is over the top. And to be honest, I don’t even recall the restaurant salad being excessively oily so I’m wondering if the recipe has a typo. I’ve also reduced the amount of parmesan from about 1/2 cup to 1/3 cup because I thought the flavour was overpowering and also found that with the reduced amount of oil, 1/2 cup of parmesan absorbed too much of the liquid leaving the salad a bit too dry. This is one of those salads where you will do a taste test for seasoning, and think “damn that’s good”, then will sneak in another bite, then another. If you happen to be a blogger with self control issues like me you will keep nibbling away until suddenly you realise “uh oh, I’m supposed to photograph this” and you have to fish around for a smaller bowl to plate it up in. Yes, that is actually what happened when I made this. The remaining salad looked quite sparse and sad in the big salad bowl I originally had it in, so I had to put it in a smaller bowl just to photograph it. This Pea, Cabbage, Parmesan and Mint Salad is really simple to make using everyday ingredients. The restaurant version uses freshly podded peas, but I usually make this with frozen peas. I love freshly podded peas, but the reality is they are about 4 times more expensive than frozen and on a normal day, I do not have the time, energy or interest to pod peas. And you know what? In this particular salad, I bet most people won’t be able to tell if you use fresh or frozen peas. The radish is optional, I know some people don’t like radish and also it can be expensive sometimes! They add colour as well as texture and freshness to the salad. If you don’t have or don’t want to use radish, I suggest adding some thinly sliced red onion which will have a similar effect both visually and in flavour. Pea, Cabbage, Parmesan and Mint Salad holds up well prepared in advance. If you are making it the day before, keep the dressing and parmesan separate. You can dress it up to 4 hours ahead of serving it – any longer and the cabbage will wilt too much. A great unique, easy restaurant quality salad to add to your sides rotation!
