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Spring Pea Salad

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This delicious spring pea salad is perfect for a picnic, or Easter or any time. It is super easy to throw together and tastes great using either fresh or defrosted frozen peas. The bacon, cheese and creamy tie it all together in a side dish that will keep you coming back for more.

Serving bowl filled with creamy pea salad with creamy dressing, cheese and crumbled bacon.

This super simple side dish is always a hit. It is a great way to highlight fresh peas or you can use frozen peas to make it even easier.

Bits of crumbled bacon and cheese highlight the savory side of this pea salad and a simple creamy dressing ties it all together. It is perfect with grilled meat, ham and more.

It also makes a great lunch if you want to make a meal out of it. Make some for a picnic, a potluck or Easter and it is sure to be gobbled right up!

Ingredients including peas, sour cream, miracle whip, shredded cheddar and crumbled bacon ready to be made into a pea salad.

It is a great make ahead dish too. You can make it several hours or even a day or two in advance.

That makes it perfect for a carry-in or holiday meal. All you have to do when it’s time is pull it out of the fridge and give it a stir.

Mixing bowl filled with pea salad with bacon and cheese, ready to chill in the fridge.

Sometimes simple sides like this really are the way to go.  With spring upon us again, I couldn’t wait to make another batch of this spring pea salad.

We were making baby back ribs and cheesy potatoes with bacon. I thought a simple and fresh side like this would be a perfect accompaniment.

Pea salad served with BBQ ribs and cheesy potatoes with bacon.

I only made one batch because I knew he was going to make a ton of ribs and he was doing a smoked macaroni and cheese too.  In hindsight I should have made two as the pea salad disappeared rather quickly.

This pea salad is a perfect side dish with anything on the grill. Though you don’t have to fire up the grill to enjoy a serving, I could also eat it by itself for lunch!  

Optional Add-ins:

We like to keep our pea salad on the simple side. The whole family loves it this way and adding too much more is likely to turn somebody off.

However, there are a lot of great options to add if you like more variety in your salad. Here are a few ideas:

  • Chopped hard boiled eggs
  • Diced red onion
  • Chopped green onions
  • Swap diced ham for some or all of the bacon
  • You can also try different cheeses, sometimes we use small cubes instead of shredded

For a lighter dressing you can swap plain yogurt for some or all of the sour cream and salad dressing.

Pea salad topped with extra chopped bacon, ready to be served.

What is the best way to quickly defrost the peas?

You can put a bag of frozen peas in the refrigerator overnight to defrost them. If you forgot, just empty a bag of frozen peas into a colander and run cold water over them until they are most of the way defrosted.

Serving bowl filled with creamy pea salad with creamy dressing, cheese and crumbled bacon.

Spring Pea Salad

Carlee
This delicious spring pea salad is perfect for a picnic, or Easter or any time. It is super easy to throw together and tastes great using either fresh or defrosted frozen peas. The bacon, cheese and creamy tie it all together in a side dish that will keep you coming back for more.
5 from 16 ratings
Prep Time 10 minutes
Cook Time 0 minutes
Additional Time 30 minutes
Total Time 40 minutes
Course Salads
Cuisine American
Servings 6 Servings
Calories 123 kcal

Ingredients
 

  • 1 pound peas fresh or defrosted
  • 4 Tablespoon Miracle Whip or similar
  • cup sour cream
  • ¼ cup bacon cooked and crumbled
  • ¼ cup shredded cheddar cheese
  • teaspoon ground black pepper
  • ¼ teaspoon salt

Instructions
 

  • Make sure peas are fully defrosted and drain any liquid.
    1 pound peas
  • Mix all the ingredients together
    4 Tablespoon Miracle Whip, ⅓ cup sour cream, ¼ cup bacon, ¼ cup shredded cheddar cheese, ⅛ teaspoon ground black pepper, ¼ teaspoon salt
  • Adjust your salt and pepper to your liking and refrigerate until ready to serve
  • That’s it! So easy and so good!

Notes

To lighten up the salad you can use plain Greek yogurt in place of the sour cream and Miracle Whip. You can also use diced ham in place of the bacon.

Nutrition

Serving: 1ServingCalories: 123kcalCarbohydrates: 13gProtein: 7gFat: 5gSaturated Fat: 3gPolyunsaturated Fat: 2gCholesterol: 15mgSodium: 181mgFiber: 4gSugar: 5g
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Recipe Rating




Alexandra Cook

Sunday 24th of March 2019

I love anything with peas! This sounds so good. Hope you've had a lovely weekend! :) Alex @ It's Not Complicated Recipes

Jan

Sunday 13th of May 2018

My brother loves pea salad! I do not have fond memories of it from childhood! lol, but this would be fun to make for him at our summer reunion!

Carlee

Sunday 20th of May 2018

Oh no! I love it and it would be perfect reunion food!

Joanne

Friday 30th of March 2018

I have never heard of a pea salad either but my husband LOVES peas. I bet he'd love this. Thanks for sharing. We'll have to try it soon. Pinned.

Carlee

Wednesday 4th of April 2018

You should definitely try it! I hope you love it!

Carol @Comfort Spring Station

Thursday 22nd of March 2018

Great spring salad

Carlee

Sunday 25th of March 2018

Thank you!

Virginia Moore

Monday 27th of March 2017

Pea Salad is an old family favorite and thanks for reminding me to make it again soon. My old recipe is slightly different in that it does use mayo and instead of chopped ham, it uses chopped hard-boiled eggs. They add some protein, make it pretty and tasty, too.

Carlee

Monday 27th of March 2017

We love hard boiled eggs. I need to try it that way too!