Green asparagus with pea puree, fried egg, sun-dried tomatoes and prosciutto

Every once in a while I go through my old recipes to look for ones that need improving, mostly photo-wise. Today’s recipe is one that I originally created nearly 3 years ago and I hadn’t actually made it since. So I decided to remake it, modify the ingredients a little bit to balance the flavours out more and to completely reshoot it. It’s turned into a fantastic meal you can have for breakfast, brunch or lunch! It’s full a little bowl of sunshine filled with Spring flavours: asparagus, fresh mint, basil and chives and some sun-dried tomatoes.

It’s really easy to make and if you’re expecting guests you can make the pea puree beforehand, boil the asparagus beforehand and just pan fry them for a minute when your guests are waiting and you’ll then have their plates ready within 5 minutes (once your eggs are fried you are good to go!)

Asparagus can be bought in stores all year round as they are imported from Peru and other Southern countries, but the Irish and British asparagus season begins in April so it’s only a few days away although some farmers are already selling theirs so it will be worth your while to step away from the supermarkets and to go out to local markets instead to get the first asparagus of the season!

Serves: 4

Ingredients

• 5 mint leaves
• 2 spring onions
• 5 chives
• 10 basil leaves
• 420g Irish green peas or Garden peas
• 8 sun-dried tomatoes (not in juice)
• juice of half a lime
• 16 green asparagus tips
• 75g lamb’s lettuce
• 12 slices of prosciutto
• 4 eggs
• sea salt and pepper
• 150ml water

Optional: some bread on the side (I recommend brown rolls or gingerbread)

Preparation

Trim off the bottom part of the asparagus and take out just a tablespoon of the peas, which we’ll use for dressing and cook the rest in some boiling water with some salt and the asparagus. The cooking time is 3 minutes for the peas but may vary from 3-6 minutes for the asparagus depending on their thickness so check the tenderness of the asparagus by poking the end with a fork. Can you pierce through them? Then you are good to go!

While the peas and asparagus are boiling fry your eggs with a pinch of sea salt and pepper and set up your bowls in the meantime as well. Divide the lettuce, and roll up the prosciutto.

Once the peas and asparagus are done, scoop out 150ml of the boiling water and set aside. Drain the rest of the water and put the peas in a blender along with the herbs, lime juice, just a few grinds of pepper and some sea salt. Pour in half the water and blend. Add more depending on the desired thickness, but I used 150ml myself.  Fill up the bowls by dollops of pea puree in between the rolls of prosciutto, slice up the sun-dried tomato and do the same for the asparagus tips but keep the tips whole. I pan-fried my asparagus pieces before adding them to the bowls, as I had boiled them beforehand and they had gotten cold. Also add the remaining peas.

Top it of with the warm egg and serve with some bread and have a lovely day!