Black Eyed Pea Salad

Black eyed pea salad is perfect for days when you want to eat light and not do much of cooking. This is a vegan, gluten-free and nutritious salad. My hubby loves making salads and this is one of our family favorites.

Ingredients to make black eyed pea salad

Black eyed pea salad is versatile and can use ingredients at hand. I am using dried black eyed peas however, canned ones work well too.

The only difference is, the dried ones need to be pressure cooked and allowed to cool down before adding it to the salad.

Veggies like cucumbers, onions, tomatoes or cherry tomatoes, spring mix, radish, bell peppers are used. I have added some kiwi for a sweet and tangy flavor but it is optional.

For topping, MCT oil or olive oil, chopped almonds, pumpkin seeds and hemp seeds are used. A dash of lemon juice and some chopped cilantro is added for flavor and garnishing.

As per healthline.com, MCT oil has a lot of health benefits and helps with weight loss, controlling blood sugar, reduces risk factor for heart disease and much more.

Hemp seeds are highly nutritious and a good source of protein (reference healthline.com). Eating whole hemp seeds also aids in digestion.

How to make black eyed pea salad

Black eyed pea salad is really easy to make, just like most salads, mix up all the ingredients and you are done!

However, some cooking is involved when using dried beans, they must be pressure cooked first but it is really easy to pressure cook in the instant pot.

How to cook black eyed peas without soaking

Usually I do not plan for salads and it is a last moment item so there is no soaking time for the black eyed peas. But thanks to the instant pot, it can be cooked in short amount of time.

There is not much difference in cooking black eyed peas without soaking or after soaking for few hours.

To pressure cook dry black eyed peas, add rinsed peas and water in the ratio of 1:3, add some salt and pressure cook on high for 20 minutes followed by natural pressure release (allow the pressure to release naturally until the silver pin drops)

How to make the black eyed pea salad

Discard any water from the cooked peas and let it cool down. As they are cooling down, chop all the other ingredients and mix in a mixing bowl.

Add the cooled down black eyed peas and give it a light mix. Garnish with cilantro and optionally some lime juice.

Serving and storing suggestions

It is best to serve the salad within a couple hours and not have any leftovers. If you want to do some prep work, you can pressure cook black eyed peas and refrigerate it for about a 3-4 days or for a month in the freezer. Stored black eyed peas can be used to make the salad quickly.

Don't forget to check out these dinner recipes loaded with veggies

• Vegan pasta soup
• Kung pao Chickpeas
• Mixed vegetable casserole
• Baked broccoli pasta
• Paneer wraps

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