Spring Vegetable Pistou With Yellow-Eyed Beans, Favas, Peas & Black Bass Recipe

Spring Vegetable Pistou With Yellow-Eyed Beans, Favas, Peas & Black Bass

In-Season Spring Recipes Main Dish Spreads, Sauces, & Dips

Light and fresh, this dish both looks and tastes green like spring! This simple yet flavorful meal is refreshing and beautiful to look at after a long winter.

Photography By Chip Riegel | March 01, 2015

Ingredients

SERVINGS: 6 Serving(s)

Pistou

2 cups celery, chopped
2 cups spring onion greens, chopped
2 cups (roughly ½ cucumber) English cucumber, chopped
4 cups fresh spinach, washed and stemmed
6 to 8 tablespoons créme fraîche

Beans

1½ cups cooked yellow-eyed beans or white bean of choice
¾ cup green peas, blanched
¾ cup fava beans, peeled and blanched
¼ cup vegetable stock
Kosher or sea salt
Freshly ground black pepper

Bass

6 (6-ounce) black bass fillets
1 to 2 tablespoons vegetable oil
1 radish, sliced thin, for final garnish

Instructions

Using an electric juicer or blender, juice celery, spring onion greens, cucumber and spinach together until very smooth (adding a little water if using a blender). Strain liquid through cheesecloth or a fine-mesh sieve to make roughly 1½ cups. Combine juice and créme fraîche in a small sauce pot and set aside.

In another small pot mix beans, peas and fava beans together with vegetable stock and slowly warm. Season to taste with salt and pepper.

Heat a large sauté pan and add oil. Season fish with salt and pepper. Sear fillets on one side for 4–5 minutes. Flip and cook on the other side for 6–8 minutes, depending on the thickness of the fish.

When the fish is cooked, season the juice with salt and pepper to taste and warm it over a low-medium heat, saving this for last to preserve the bright green color. Divide warmed beans and fish among 6 warm, shallow bowls. Pour broth around beans and fish. Garnish with radish.

Recipe by Christopher Bender and David Crowell, Chef/Owners, Stoneacre Pantry, Newport