Skip to footer

Meatless Monday: Spring pea and avocado crostini

This versatile spring pea and avocado purée can also be served as a side dish, a sandwich spread, or a veggie dip.

|
Beyond The Peel
A spring pea and avocado purée spread on thick slices of a baguette toasted with olive oil and garnished with feta cheese.

Between the Glazed Beet and Chevre Bruschetta (which I ate everyday until we ran out) and this Spring Pea and Avocado Crostini, I feel like my kitchen status has been renewed after a recent stretch of bad cooking.

Now, I know, a big green blob on a piece of bread is hard to sell, but my husband raved about it and went back for seconds. He coined it pea and avocado guacamole … maybe that’s a better name? What do you think?

With all the fresh spring flavors available after a long winter of squash and root vegetables, it’s hard to not get carried away and spend days in the kitchen cooking and eating. Fortunately, there will be no guilt if you indulge in this dish. Make it as a snack or even a meal served along side a nice green salad. 

I don’t know what to call it, really. It makes delicious crostinis, but this pea purée would be lovely as a sandwich spread. I can imagine it making a light dip for veggies or adding it along side grilled fish.

The longest step to the recipe is cooking the peas, so if you have the 12 minutes to cook peas – which I think most of us do – go for it.

Peas are only just now making their way into markets, so for those able to get your hands on them early in the season, I recommend giving this tasty spread/dip/crostini topper a try.

Spring Pea and Avocado Crostini

2 cups fresh peas (or frozen)
2 tablespoons of fresh lemon juice
1/2 cup crumbled feta
1/2 cup of basil, roughly chopped and loosely packed
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 avocado, pit and skin removed
1/2 green onion sliced
2 tablespoons Parsley Vinaigrette
Salt and pepper to taste
1 baguette, sliced into 1/2 inch thick slices
Olive oil

Preheat oven to 450 degrees F. to toast the baguette.

Place the peas in a pot with 2 inches of water and simmer until cooked, approximately 10 to 14 minutes. If using frozen peas, this will only take 4 minutes. Meanwhile place the lemon juice, feta, basil, olive oil, avocado and green onion in a food processor or blender. Once the peas are cooked, drain and rinse the peas under cold water. Place the cooled peas in the food processor along with the other ingredients and blend until ingredients are well combined. Season with salt and pepper and set aside in the refrigerator until ready to use.

Using a bread knife, slice the baguette into 1/2-inch thick slices and place on a baking sheet. Brush one side of the slices with olive oil. Place in the oven and toast until just starting to turn golden, approximately 12 minutes.

Top the crostini with the pea and avocado spread. Garnish with crumbled feta, basil or parsley. 

Related post on Beyond The Peel: Glazed Beet and Chevre Bruschetta

You've read  of  free articles. Subscribe to continue.
Real news can be honest, hopeful, credible, constructive.
What is the Monitor difference? Tackling the tough headlines – with humanity. Listening to sources – with respect. Seeing the story that others are missing by reporting what so often gets overlooked: the values that connect us. That’s Monitor reporting – news that changes how you see the world.
editor@csmonitor.com
Subscribe
Mark Sappenfield
Editor

Dear Reader,

About a year ago, I happened upon this statement about the Monitor in the Harvard Business Review – under the charming heading of “do things that don’t interest you”:

“Many things that end up” being meaningful, writes social scientist Joseph Grenny, “have come from conference workshops, articles, or online videos that began as a chore and ended with an insight. My work in Kenya, for example, was heavily influenced by a Christian Science Monitor article I had forced myself to read 10 years earlier. Sometimes, we call things ‘boring’ simply because they lie outside the box we are currently in.”

If you were to come up with a punchline to a joke about the Monitor, that would probably be it. We’re seen as being global, fair, insightful, and perhaps a bit too earnest. We’re the bran muffin of journalism.

But you know what? We change lives. And I’m going to argue that we change lives precisely because we force open that too-small box that most human beings think they live in.

The Monitor is a peculiar little publication that’s hard for the world to figure out. We’re run by a church, but we’re not only for church members and we’re not about converting people. We’re known as being fair even as the world becomes as polarized as at any time since the newspaper’s founding in 1908.

We have a mission beyond circulation, we want to bridge divides. We’re about kicking down the door of thought everywhere and saying, “You are bigger and more capable than you realize. And we can prove it.”

If you’re looking for bran muffin journalism, you can subscribe to the Monitor for $15. You’ll get the Monitor Weekly magazine, the Monitor Daily email, and unlimited access to CSMonitor.com.

Subscribe to insightful journalism

QR Code to Meatless Monday: Spring pea and avocado crostini
Read this article in
https://www.csmonitor.com/The-Culture/Food/Stir-It-Up/2012/0604/Meatless-Monday-Spring-pea-and-avocado-crostini
QR Code to Subscription page
Start your subscription today
https://www.csmonitor.com/subscribe