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This simple English Pea Salad, made with fresh English peas, crisp veggies, and a creamy dressing (plus bacon and blue cheese), is the perfect springtime side dish. Serve alongside my Baked Ham for Easter, or any time you feel like a delicious fresh vegetable dish.
Why You’ll Love This English Pea Salad Recipe
To be honest, I had never made a pea salad before. I always thought it would be weird and taste funky. But then I got the brilliant idea to add bacon and blue cheese which made it taste like bacon and blue cheese and suddenly pea salads were worth thinking about. If you’ve never thought about turning peas into a salad, today would be a great day to give it a whirl. It’s like bacon-y springtime in a bowl. If you like pea salad, consider adding it to your Easter menu!
Ingredients Needed for English Pea Salad
You only need a few classic ingredients to make this creamy pea salad!
- English Peas – I used fresh English peas from Trader Joe’s. They were lovely and had a great texture to them. See my notes below about using frozen peas.
- Red Onion – adds incredible flavor. If you’re not a fan, feel free to leave onions out.
- Blue Cheese – I love blue cheese, but I know it’s a controversial ingredient. So feel free to substitute with sharp cheddar cheese, provolone or even feta cheese.
- Bacon Crumbles – I always keep a bag of bacon crumbles on hand. It’s such a time saver! But if you want to do this by hand, and make your own crispy bacon. I suggest you cook bacon in the oven and then crumble it.
- Mayonnaise, Sour Cream, Dill and Salt & Pepper- these ingredients make up the dressing. Use real mayonnaise for best results.
Variations
- Make it Your Own – make this salad your own by adding more fresh veggies to it like green onions, snow peas, or dill pickles.
- Hard-boiled Eggs – add more protein to it with chopped hard boiled eggs.
- Plain Greek Yogurt – If you aren’t a fan of sour cream, substitute with greek yogurt.
- Add a little tangy flavor – as written, my recipe doesn’t have vinegar in the dressing. If you want to add a little bit of tang to it, add a splash of apple cider vinegar, balsamic vinegar or lemon juice.
Fresh Peas vs Frozen Peas
While there is nothing like fresh peas, I understand that these are not always readily available to everyone. Feel free to substitute frozen peas if that’s all you can find. It will be FINE!! Simply defrost them quickly in a colander with warm water. Once they are defrosted, run some cold water over them to chill and then dry on a clean kitchen towel. You can also defrost in the fridge overnight. Just be sure to rinse and dry them before using. While technically you can use canned peas for this salad, I would stick to fresh or frozen peas.
How to Make English Pea Salad
This cold pea salad is a great side dish for any occasion- a baby shower, a summer bbq, even a random Wednesday. For full details on how to make this English Pea Salad, including ingredient measurements, see the recipe card down below. Here are step-by-step instructions for making this recipe:
1. Blanch Peas
Start by blanching your fresh peas. Bring large pot of water to boil, salt the water and cook peas for 90 seconds or so. Drain and submerge into ice water. This step is actually optional as fresh peas can be eaten completely raw.
Drain again and pour onto clean dish towels to dry. As you dry the peas, go through them to pick out any bad peas. Transfer to a large bowl and set aside.
*If using frozen peas that have already been defrosted, you can skip this step.
2. Add Red Onion, Bacon + Blue Cheese
Dice up the red onion, then add bacon crumbles and blue cheese crumbles to the bowl of peas.
3. Make the Dressing
Stir mayonnaise and sour cream together with a little salt, pepper and dill. Once combined together, pour the creamy dressing over your ingredients. Give it a good stir and that’s it, your pea salad is finito!
Storing Leftover English Pea Salad
You can eat it right away, or refrigerate it for a couple of hours and let the fresh flavors marry. I really love to eat this salad very cold, so I prefer to eat it the next day. When serving this salad, make sure it gets back into the fridge within 2 hours. You want to avoid letting any salad with mayonnaise become room temperature.
This Pea Salad will last in the fridge, in an airtight container or covered with plastic wrap for up to 4 days. Be sure to cover well! I don’t recommend freezing this salad since the dressing contains mayo. Once mayo is frozen and thawed, the texture becomes grainy and separated.
What to Serve with English Pea Salad
This is delightfully fresh and light veggie salad that would be a perfect spring or summer side dish. The possibilities are endless for what to serve this salad with. It easily goes with almost anything you’re serving. Here are a few ideas that I love to eat this with.
More Salad Recipes to Try!
So there you have it! A fun and different kind of salad that is popular for even picky eaters. If you like bacon and cheese, this pea salad is especially for you! The printable recipe card is down below. Have a great day, friends!
If you make this recipe, I would really appreciate it if you would give it a star rating and leave your review in the comments! If you have a picture of your finished dish, post it on Instagram using the hashtag #laurenslatest and tagging me @laurens_latest.
English Pea Salad Recipe
This yummy English Pea Salad, made with fresh English peas, crisp veggies, and creamy dressing plus {bacon and blue cheese}, is the perfect springtime side dish.
Instructions
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Bring pot of water to boil. Salt water and add in peas. Cook 90 seconds to 2 minutes. Drain and submerge into ice water. Drain again and pour onto clean dish towels to dry. As you dry peas, sort through them to remove any brown peas or random debris, like stalks and leaves. Pour peas into large bowl. Add in cheese and bacon.
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For the dressing, stir mayonnaise, sour cream, red onion, salt, pepper and dill together until smooth. Pour over peas and stir to coat. Either serve immediately or chill in refrigerator until ready to serve.
Notes
If you can’t find the fresh peas, get some frozen ones and defrost them quickly in a colander with warm water. Once they are defrosted, run some cold water over them to chill and then dry on a clean kitchen towel. You can also defrost in the fridge overnight, just be sure to rinse and dry them before using. No need to blanch them like you would using the fresh peas.
Nutrition
Calories: 282kcal | Carbohydrates: 14g | Protein: 11g | Fat: 20g | Saturated Fat: 5g | Cholesterol: 24mg | Sodium: 417mg | Potassium: 302mg | Fiber: 5g | Sugar: 6g | Vitamin A: 817IU | Vitamin C: 38mg | Calcium: 76mg | Iron: 2mg
