Warm pea salad
This dish can be made with fully-thawed frozen peas or with fresh peas. Balance your desire to serve fresh food with your need to save time – your diners might not readily tell which you chose.
Toss a teaspoon of black mustard seeds in a tablespoon of hot oil in a covered cooking pot and keep up the heat until the seeds pop. Then add a healthy half teaspoon of cumin seeds, a pinch of asafoetida, a half teaspoon of turmeric and 4 cups of peas. Stir the lot and cook covered on low heat for 10 minutes. Don’t let the cumin seeds go brown or worse, black. Mix in a half teaspoon of garam masala and a half teaspoon of jaggery and return covered to the heat for another 4 minutes. Remove from the heat and let them sit covered for 10 minutes before adding the juice of a lime, 2 healthy tablespoons of shredded coconut and 2 heaped tablespoons of chopped coriander leaves (although those who are coriander-challenged could substitute with mint I reckon – I haven’t but I reckon it would work). Mix the whole lot well and serve warm (though it is pretty good when cold).