It is very hot outside and I'm feeling particularly lazy. Yet I'm hungry. It's too hot to eat a full, heavy meal but I'm really hungry. After seeing my gardening friends posting their magazine quality photos of their pea harvests, I'm having a pea craving. I think the following three recipes are the three best pea recipes. 7 Layer Salad
I love 7 layer salads. I tend to make them only occasionally in the summer and have not yet made one this year. There are a variety of 7 layer salad recipes to be found, but I always use the recipe that uses peas. I love the flavor that peas add to this salad.
While looking for that recipe, so I could give you the amounts of the ingredients, I found this version of a Layered Salad by The Pioneer Woman. I like her version even better! She adds spinach and tomatoes - in addition to the 7 ingredients I add: lettuce, eggs, peas, green onions, bacon, cheese, and mayo.
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| Layered Salad by The Pioneer Woman |
Her salad is like a beautiful BLT in a bowl, with the added oomph of the peas and other ingredients. What a fresh and beautiful layer salad. YUM! My mouth is watering.
I need to stop at the farmer's stand and buy some fresh, ripe 'maters - instead of those cardboard flavored tomatoes at the grocery.
Pea Soup
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| Pea Soup recipe by Eating Well |
In this heat, I believe I would serve this chilled (as many pea soup recipes are) but I can also imagine this would be a great soup to prepare and serve either warm or chilled - depending on my mood that day.
Smashed Peas with Mint Butter
All my life, I've smashed my peas in my potatoes and made smashed peas. Mom served them separately but they ended up mashed together on my plate. Who knew that would become "a thing" ?! Well, it is.
Including the water, this Smashed Pea with Mint Butter recipe by Genius Kitchen has a whopping 7 ingredients! Again, everything I have in my kitchen already with the exception of fresh parsley. No, I don't intentionally boycott parsley, I apparently just don't really use it.
The idea of adding my own fresh mint (from the balcony) to my smashed peas excites me.
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| Smashed Peas with Mint Butter by Genius Kitchen |
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Whether you prefer using fresh peas for a garden to table cooking or frozen peas (because frozen peas keep their flavor for a garden-fresh taste even when the gardens aren't producing) I hope you find one of these recipes to be useful.
Summer is a wonderful time for trying new recipes and re-visiting family favorites because the seasonal vegetables are at their freshest and most flavorful. I always feel more adventurous in the kitchen when gardens are in full swing.
Related Link:
Do you think you hate eating peas? For me it was beets. I despised beets for decades. But I changed my mind recently. Here is my article about how I came to love (and crave) beets. Even if you think you don't want to eat peas, one of the above recipes may change your mind.
Looking for vegetable recipes other than peas? I've included some recommended cookbooks below. And yes, I've included a kid-friendly cookbook (being released in October) because, frankly, kid-friendly recipes are more my style.
Photo Credit: Intro photo courtesy of Pixaby - CC0 creative commons
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