Hungry Howie: End of Summer Salad

A few weeks ago, a friend e-mailed to ask when I was going to post my next "Hungry Howie" post to the blog. Until she asked, it hadn't occurred to me that it had been months since I spent time in the kitchen making something worth getting excited about. When we're busy and overwhelmed, cooking is the first thing to slide. I've made many a dinner in the last few months and even tried making pancakes for the first time (I know!) one weekend, but all have been meals that I could sleep walk through. Tasty, yes, but uninspiring. I resolved to change that this past weekend.

We're very fortunate to have access to a number of great farmer's markets, so we hit our favorite this weekend and grabbed whatever looked good to us. (Including donuts from Scratch Bakery!) With the ingredients we gathered, I was able to put together this yummy end of summer salad from Sara Foster's Casual Cooking, one of my favorite, most used cookbooks. Sara Foster is one of our more famous local chefs and we're big fans of her restaurant. My adapted recipe follows.

Heirloom Tomato Salad with Purple-Hull Peas

kosher salt
fresh ground black pepper
1 cup purple-hull peas (or other fresh beans such as lady peas, black eyed peas, or even frozen green peas)
2 lbs heirloom tomatoes, sliced (or any tasty variety that you have available)
1/4 c cider vinegar
juice of 1 lemon
1/4 c extra-virgin olive oil
1 shallot, minced
1 tsp sugar
fresh basil leaves, thinly sliced

Boil peas in a salted pot of water for 8 to 10 minutes, until tender. Drain and rinse under cold water until cooled.

Combine vinegar, lemon juice, shallot and sugar in a medium bowl. Gradually whisk in olive oil until combined. Season with salt and pepper to taste.

Add sliced tomatoes and peas to vinaigrette and toss lightly to combine. Sprinkle basil over salad and season with salt and pepper.

The original recipe calls for fresh lady peas, but those weren't available. It also includes a minced jalapeno in the vinaigrette, but I opted to leave that out.