Peas in a Summer Salad?

Salads often feature the color green, be it lettuce, cucumber, arugula, kale, fresh spinach or bell pepper.  Here’s another green vegetable to add: peas. 

I toss frozen peas into numerous rice dishes, mostly for a bit of color.  But I never considered them to be the basis for a salad until my neighbor Mary brought her Summer Pea Salad over for a recent barbecue.

Some guests looked at it suspiciously, not recognizing this popular Southern dish.  Other neighbors, who had obviously sampled Mary’s salad already, dug right in. In fact, several of them started a discussion about what size peas tasted best in a salad.  Petite Frozen Peas came out first.

Mary’s Marvelous Summer Pea Salad – serves 4 

1 16-ounce package frozen petite peas, thawed and drained
1 8-ounce can sliced water chestnuts, drained and cut into slivers
2 scallions, white and green parts sliced thinly
2 tablespoons mayonnaise
2 tablespoons sour cream
1 teaspoon hot pepper sauce (or more if you like really spicy food)
1 teaspoon lemon juice
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon black pepper
1 cup roasted salted peanuts 

Combine all the ingredients except the peanuts in a large bowl and stir gently to combine.  Refrigerate until needed.  Offer the peanuts in a separate bowl to sprinkle over the salad.

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