Green Pea and Mint Dip
Sweet green peas blanched ninety seconds, then blended with tahini, lemon and softened garlic and finished with mint pulsed in at the very end.
Why You'll Love This Recipe
This is what I make when I want something green on the table in fifteen minutes. The peas go from the freezer to boiling water to the food processor, and the whole thing is finished before a dip that needs soaking or roasting has properly started. The color gets people first, a green so bright it looks like it ought to be a garnish rather than the main event.
Blanching is the step people skip and should not. Ninety seconds in salted boiling water sets the color and sweetens the peas, and an ice bath immediately after stops the cooking before that green slides toward olive. Tahini goes in for body, since peas on their own blend into something thin and grassy, and its sesame bitterness balances how genuinely sweet peas are. Frozen peas work as well as fresh here and often better, because they were blanched and frozen within hours of picking.
Mint is pulsed in raw at the end rather than blended at the start, so it stays cool and sharp against all that sweetness. What you get is soft, a little grainy in the best way, and bright enough that people come back for a third scoop. It is the sort of thing I make on a Sunday and eat all week, and it dulls a shade in color by the third day without losing anything of the taste.
Ingredients
- 3 cups green peas
- 2 tbsp olive oil
- 2 tbsp tahini
- 1/2 cup packed fresh mint leaves
- 2 tbsp lemon juice
- 2 cloves garlic, minced
- 2 scallions, thinly sliced
- 1/4 tsp salt
- 1/4 tsp black pepper
Instructions
- Blanch the peas: Bring a small pot of water to a rolling boil and salt it lightly. Add the green peas and cook for 90 seconds only, until they are vivid green and just tender enough to crush against the roof of your mouth. Longer than that and both the color and the sweetness begin to go.
- Shock them cold: Drain the peas and tip them straight into a bowl of ice water. This stops the cooking on the spot and locks in the green. Leave them two minutes, drain well, then shake off as much water as you can, since extra water makes a loose and bland dip.
- Soften the garlic: Warm the olive oil in a small skillet over low heat with the minced garlic for about a minute, until it smells sweet and has turned barely blond. Raw garlic in a pea dip tastes hot and metallic, and a minute in warm oil takes that edge off and leaves the sweetness behind.
- Blend the base: Put the drained peas, the garlic and its oil, the tahini, lemon juice, salt and black pepper into a food processor. Run it a full minute, scraping down twice, until the dip is thick and only slightly grainy. Add a spoonful of cold water if it climbs the walls rather than turning over.
- Pulse in the mint: Add the mint leaves and the sliced scallion and pulse six or eight times, just enough to break them up and streak them through. Blending mint hard bruises it and the flavor goes dull and dark, so keep the pulses short and stop early.
- Taste and rest: Taste for lemon and salt, scrape into a bowl and let it sit ten minutes before serving. Tahini keeps absorbing liquid as it stands, so the dip thickens slightly and the flavors settle into one another.
Variations
- Pea and basil: Basil where the mint goes sends the dip warmer and more peppery, closer to a loose pesto.
- Avocado body: Half an avocado blended in makes it silkier and richer and softens the sweetness of the peas.
- Lemon and dill: Fresh dill and extra lemon take it in a cooler, more Scandinavian direction.
- Chickpea thickness: A handful of chickpeas in the processor thickens the dip enough to spread rather than scoop.
- Give it heat: A minced jalapeno or a pinch of cayenne blended through gives the sweetness something to push against.
Storage & Leftovers
The dip keeps four days in the refrigerator in a sealed container. Smooth the surface flat and pour a thin film of olive oil over the top, which slows the browning that peas and mint both do once air reaches them.
The green fades a little each day and that is normal. A squeeze of fresh lemon and a few torn mint leaves stirred through just before serving wakes both the color and the flavor back up. Stir well, since the liquid separates and pools as it sits.
It freezes better than most dips do. Freeze it flat for up to three months, thaw overnight in the refrigerator, and beat it hard with a fork to bring it back together. Add the fresh mint after thawing rather than before, since freezing flattens it.
Notes & Tips
- Ninety seconds, no more: Peas go from bright and sweet to dull and starchy in about the time it takes to answer the door.
- The ice bath is not optional: It is the only thing that holds that green once the peas come out of the water.
- Drain hard: Water clinging to the peas thins the dip and mutes everything else you put in it.
- Tame the garlic: A minute in warm oil turns raw garlic from hot and metallic into sweet and round.
- Pulse the mint: Long blending bruises mint leaves and the flavor goes flat and dark, so break them up and stop.
- Let it rest: Ten minutes on the counter lets the tahini drink up the liquid and the dip firms into itself.
Nutrition & Mindful Eating
- The peas, the tahini and the olive oil are what give this dip its body. Peas bring sweetness, protein and fiber, tahini brings the fat that makes it feel rich on the spoon, and the oil carries the softened garlic through the whole bowl.
- Green peas are sweet in a way that surprises people who only ever meet them alongside dinner, and they carry real plant protein and fiber inside that sweetness. Blanched briefly rather than boiled soft, they keep both their color and that just-burst texture.
- Tahini is ground sesame and nothing else, thick and faintly bitter, and it is what keeps this from tasting like blended vegetable. It brings calcium and a warm sesame depth that sits underneath the mint.
- Mint pulsed in at the end rather than blended at the start stays cool and green on the tongue, and it is the flavor that arrives last and stays longest. Bruise it hard in a machine and that lift disappears.
- A dip built on peas and sesame holds you the way a good snack should, and the lemon and garlic keep something this soft from ever tasting flat. On the spoon you get sweet, then bitter, then bright, in that order.
- As you eat, notice how the sweetness of the peas arrives first and the mint comes in behind it, and take the second scoop slowly enough to decide whether you actually want a third.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can I use fresh peas from the pod?
You can, and in June they are lovely, but blanch them a minute longer and taste as you go. Garden peas run anywhere from sweet to starchy depending on how long it has been since picking, which is exactly the variable frozen peas remove.
My dip came out gray-green rather than bright.
The peas cooked too long, or they went into the processor still warm. Ninety seconds in the water and a proper ice bath are what hold the color. Warm peas also steam inside the closed processor bowl, which dulls the green further.
How far ahead can I make it?
A day ahead is ideal for flavor, since the garlic and lemon settle in. Hold back half the mint and stir it through fresh right before serving so the top note is still there. Anything longer than that and I would freeze it rather than refrigerate it.
Is this all plant food?
Yes. Peas, mint, tahini, lemon, garlic, scallion, and olive oil, with nothing from an animal in the bowl. The creaminess comes from the tahini and from the starch in the peas themselves. It does contain sesame.