Three greens. That's what it means, though if you count them up you'll see there's five greens in the list of ingredients. This recipe is based on a dish I tasted in a restaurant and in their menu it was called 'Trios verdes' so I'm going to stick with that.
The restaurant was Pizza Express and it is located in terminal two of Heathrow airport. Sveta and I celebrated her birthday there several years ago. She says that since she met me she's spent most of her birthdays in airports or on planes. I guess it's just the time of year we most frequently travel. Anyway, we chose the restaurant to celebrate as best we could and it was good. Good food and a pleasant atmosphere. Surprising for an airport, especially Heathrow. Although we would have liked to have had a bottle of wine, we didn't as it was a bit pricey, so we went to the pub next door afterwards. We got our drinks then found out that the pub shut at 10.30 so we got chucked out fifteen minutes later. Civilization? Hah! In Scottish airports you can have porridge with whisky in it for breakfast. We had to go and find a bench to sleep on. One of the busiest airports in the world and everything shuts at 10.30. Is that rubbish or what?
We went back to the restaurant a couple of years later. I had a pizza, which was a mistake. The pasta and the aubergine bake are delicious and I assumed that the pizza would be good too, especially since the place is called Pizza Express. An unfortunate name, I think. Just imagine you went there and had pizza on the first visit. You might not go back after that. They should change their name to Pasta Express. Or the Happy Aubergine. I left half of my pizza but the salad more than made up for the disappointment.
A bit of guess work went into this. I didn't ask how they made their secret honey-mustard dressing. I didn't think they would tell me. Wouldn't be a secret then, would it?
A bunch of rocket leaves
A bunch of young spinach
A handful each of green peas, green beans and broad beans (fresh or frozen)
2 or 3 dessert spoons of olive oil
Splash of cider or wine vinegar
A dessertspoon of sweet whole grain mustard
Salt
Bring a small pan of salted water to the boil, then chuck in the broad beans and green beans (chop up the green beans if they are whole fresh ones). After three or four minutes, throw in the peas and a couple of minutes later drain them and rinse with cold water. The veg should remain crispy so don't overdo the cooking.
Arrange the leaves on a plate and top with the beans and peas. Make a dressing by putting the oil, vinegar and mustard into a glass or cup, covering it with your hand and giving it a good shake. Pour the dressing over the salad.