Food: Spring Lamb In The Snow

It’s spring now – not that you’d know it here in Orange, snow is predicted tonight! So we are eating lamb, peas and lots of greens, mostly tossed together in delicate, zingy warm salads like this one. The pea and feta hummus is wonderful not only in this recipe but smeared over crackers or bruschetta or spooned into baked potatoes.

For this salad I used Mirrool Creek Lamb rump chops from Saturday’s markets.

Warm Lamb Salad with Pea and Feta Hummus

1 cup fresh or frozen peas
1 cup chickpeas, cooked
1/2 cup mint
Juice of two lemons
1/2 cup crumbled feta
2 tbsp olive oil
3 lamb rump chops
2 handfuls rocket
1 cup broad beans, blanched
2 spring onions, finely chopped
1 cup ripe cherry tomatoes, halved
1 cup red mustard cress (or watercress)

To make the hummus, place the peas, chickpeas, mint, lemon juice and feta in a food processor and whizz until almost smooth. Heat the olive oil in a frying pan over medium-high. Cook the lamb for about three minutes on each side and set aside to rest under a foil  tent. To make the salad, place the rocket on a big platter, top with dots of the hummus, scatter with the broad beans, spring onions, cherry tomatoes and mustard cress. Slice the lamb across the grain into finger-sized strips. Lay these across the salad, drizzle with the olive oil and squeeze with lemon juice.

Serve with warm wraps or Turkish bread.