Vegan Mint and Ricotta Green Pea Salad
This Vegan Mint and Ricotta Green Pea Salad tastes great hot or cold, so it makes a perfect Christmas side no matter where you are! Vegan Almond Ricotta, lemon and mint are an easy way to dress up an otherwise boring side dish of green peas.
You can make your own almond ricotta for this recipe, or purchase vegan Feta to make it even easier. If you’re going to buy premade vegan feta, I recommend getting a nut based one from a specialty store, rather than the coconut oil based ones from the supermarket. The nut based ones have a much stronger, and (in my opinion) better flavour.
If you need to avoid nuts, you can just serve this Green Pea Salad with the lemon and mint, or even serve the Vegan Ricotta on the side.
To Make Vegan Mint and Ricotta Green Pea Salad
You can make the Vegan Almond Ricotta a day ahead, or purchase premade vegan Feta instead.
To make the ricotta, soak the almonds in boiling water for an hour until the skins become soft.
Gently squeeze the almonds to remove the skins, then rinse the peeled almonds.
Add the ricotta ingredients to a food processor and process until smooth. This takes about 15 minutes for me in my processor.
Steam the frozen peas for about 5 minutes, until almost cooked, and then add the baby spinach. Steam until the spinach starts to wilt.
Transfer the peas and spinach to a serving bowl. Stir through mint. If you are serving the salad cold, allow to cool in the refrigerator.
To serve, top with almond ricotta and lemon zest.
Mint and Vegan Ricotta Pea Salad
Ingredients
Vegan Ricotta
- 1 cup Raw Amonds
- ½ cup Water
- 1 Tbs Nutritional Yeast
- 1 Tbs Lemon Juice
- 1 tspn Salt
- ½ tspn Garlic Powder
Green Pea Salad
- 4 cups Frozen Green Peas
- 2 cups Raw Baby Spinach
- 1/4 cup Fresh Mint chopped
- 1 tspn Lemon Rind grated
Instructions
Vegan Ricotta
- Soak the almonds in boiling water for at least 1 hour until the skins are easy to remove.
- Skin the almonds by gently pressing to remove the skins. Rinse the skinned almonds.
- Add the almonds, water, nutritional yeast, lemon juice, salt and garlic powder to a processor. Process until smooth. This takes up to 15 minutes in my food processor.
Green Pea Salad
- Add the frozen peas to a steamer above a saucepan of water. Steam over medium heat for approximately 5 minutes, until almost cooked. Add the spinach to the steamer, and steam for another 5 minutes until the spinach is just wilted.
- Transfer the peas and spinach to a serving bowl. Add the chopped mint and stir until just combined.
- Serve warm or cooled, topped with ricotta and lemon.
