Culinary legend Tina Duncan draws on a lifetime’s experience of cooking for a crowd with her cookbook Plated. Here’s a taste.

Fava beans are a great pop of colour and protein in a salad. The easiest way to get them out of their skins is to pour some boiling water over frozen broad beans, drain them and then remove their skins to reveal the fava bean. Of course, if you grow them in your garden then pick the young beans, pod them and blanch the baby beans just as they are.

Serves: 6–8 | Prep time: 30 mins | Cook time: 5 mins

Ingredients

• 2 cups peas
• 2 cups fava beans
• 60ml sherry vinegar
• 60ml olive oil
• 1 small red onion, very finely sliced
• 200g prosciutto, torn
• 100g feta cheese or similar, crumbled
• 1 cup roughly chopped fresh herbs, e.g. parsley, basil, chives, fennel
• freshly ground black pepper
• pomegranate seeds for garnish (optional)

Method

In a large saucepan, blanch peas for 3 minutes in boiling salted water and immediately chill in iced water. Drain thoroughly.

Plunge beans into a large pot of boiling, well-salted water and blanch for 30 seconds. Remove with a sieve and immediately refresh in cold water. Drain well.

Combine vinegar and oil in a large bowl. Add peas, beans and onion. Toss well and arrange on a platter. Scatter with torn prosciutto, cheese and fresh herbs. Sprinkle with freshly ground black pepper, pomegranate seeds and serve.

TIP: Fava beans can be replaced with any other green beans that have been cooked and chilled. You can substitute frozen peas – you don’t need to cook them.

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