Pea Salad ~ A humble yet delicious spring-tasting salad with cheese, pepperoni, and corn, in a simple spiced mayo dressing.Pea salad, I know, doesn’t sound all that great.

I’ve had two experiences with pea salads before I made my own. One was amazing, one was not.

The amazing one was made for Christmas dinner or something along those lines many, many years ago when I lived in Texas. I remember very little about it other than cheddar cheese that had been cubed and thawed frozen peas. I suppose I could have contacted her. But asking for a recipe would have been too unlike me.

The not so amazing one is from the kitchen of my stepmom. The only reason hers is not as amazing to me is she uses canned peas. I am not a fan of canned peas at all. I think I would love hers if she used thawed frozen peas. Maybe even with fresh peas. Otherwise, her dressing is great.

This weekend I had a family dinner over at friend’s place. The entire family was in town for a wedding and everyone was making a dish to share. I needed to make something to share, but also wanted to take the opportunity to make a post.I’ve given myself a challenge to see how long I can go, cooking and posting, without going to the grocery store for anything. Once I ran out of actual staples, I will restock, but I wanted to put myself through a test to see if I could really cook with everything I have had on hand. I haven’t been to the market in over a week. That ends tomorrow, the milk is gone, eggs and cheese as well.

I thought of breaking my test challenge and buying things for the dinner. I mean, I wanted to make sure it was tasty for everyone. I thought I should first see what I had available, and then decided I got this…I could make a side dish that was tasty with what I had on-hand.

I’m certain I sounded like a little girl needing constant praise while inquiring if everyone liked the dish. If they didn’t like, then I couldn’t post it, but I had more than a dozen positive remarks, so I present to you, my on-a-whim, pea salad.

Pea Salad

Course: Salad/Side Dish

Cuisine: American

Author: Michelle De La Cerda

Pea Salad ~ A humble yet delicious spring-tasting salad with cheese, pepperoni, and corn, in a simple spiced mayo dressing.

Ingredients

1-16 oz bag frozen peas; thawed
3 oz pepperoni; diced
6 oz cheddar cheese; small cubed
1 stalk celery , finely diced
1 cup frozen corn; thawed
Salt/pepper to taste
1/4 tsp paprika
1/4 cup mayonnaise; +/- to taste

Instructions

Completely thaw both the peas and the corn, make sure they are both dry as any water will thin the dressing and eventually separate out.
When dicing and cubing the pepperoni and cheese, make sure they are all separated, as they tend to clump. Trying to de-clump them after mixing is a big pain.
In a large bowl, add the peas, corn, cheese, pepperoni, celery, salt and pepper. Mix gently.
Slowly fold the mayonnaise in and once it is smooth, add the paprika.
Taste for seasoning and add more salt/pepper if needed.
Either serve immediately or cover and chill.

Pea Salad ~ A humble yet delicious spring-tasting salad with cheese, pepperoni, and corn, in a simple spiced mayo dressing ~ The Complete Savorist

12 Comments

Florian @ContentednessCooking

April 20, 2015 at 1:21 am

Lovely idea, thanks for sharing!

Michelle
April 20, 2015 at 1:54 am
Thank you Florian.

Levan @ MyWifeMakes.com

April 20, 2015 at 3:08 am

Loving this pea salad recipe! What is great is that it’s very easy to substitute some of hte ingredients for vegan stuff since I’m vegan. Absolutely love the photography and the variety of colors and flavors as well. Thanks so much for sharing! My wife will love this!

Michelle
April 20, 2015 at 11:07 am
Vegan mayo and omitting the pepperoni and cheese is simple enough. Thank you!

April 20, 2015 at 3:10 am

P.s not sure if my previous comment went through but just wanted to give you FIVE stars for an awesome pea salad creation! Bravo!

Michelle
April 20, 2015 at 11:07 am
Got it! Thank you.

Kristen Chidsey

April 20, 2015 at 5:25 am

Michelle, I have had horrible experiences with pea salad myself–all from canned peas too!! My kids love peas and cheese and bacon (we will try this with Greek yogurt, not a fan of mayo so much) This is something they will love!

Michelle
April 20, 2015 at 11:08 am
Love the idea of Greek yogurt. I often do a combo of both yogurt and mayo. Hope you enjoy.

Rachel Cooks

April 20, 2015 at 5:44 am

What a great spring salad! Love the pepperoni in it!

Michelle
April 20, 2015 at 11:08 am
Thank you Rachel, the pepperoni was a fun addition.

Lauren

April 20, 2015 at 12:07 pm

I’ve totally challenged myself to not go to the store until I absolutely had to before…it doesn’t work out very well. I LOVE the grocery store. It’s my happy place for some reason. My husband says that when he was thinking about where to propose he asked himself where my favorites places were. He could only think of two places, the beach and the grocery store. Luckily the beach won!

Michelle
April 20, 2015 at 12:25 pm
I am so happy I am not alone in my love of grocery shopping! I seriously love it. Actually, as soon as I am done writing this reply to you, I headed there. 🙂 Oh and I am glad that your now-hubby opted to propose at the beach and not the grocery store.

Pea Salad