Monday, April 6, 2009

Purple Hull Pea Salad and Cornbread




We had a wonderful salad and cornbread meal, using one of my new, fabulous discoveries-Purple Hull Peas. I'd never seen these beans at the store before, so of course, I had to try them. They are closely related to black-eyed peas and are well loved in the South. There is even a purple hull festival held every year in Emerson, Arkansas.

For the salad, I drizzled broccoli with a bit of olive oil and some salt and pepper, and roasted it in a 400F oven until it was just tender-about 15 minutes.
While the broccoli was cooling, I made the dressing for the salad. I mixed about 2/3 cup of olive oil, 1/3 cup apple cider vinegar, a couple of big tablespoons of spicy brown mustard, about 1 tablespoon of agave nectar (or honey), and salt and pepper to taste. I poured the dressing over the drained and rinsed beans, and topped the beans with the broccoli. I used two cans of beans and one small bunch of broccoli.

I served the salad with some simple zucchini-white cheddar cornbread. I used a packaged cornbread mix, followed the package instructions, but also added a handful of grated zucchini and a handful of grated cheddar. It was a nice accompaniment to the salad.

Now that spring is finally here, we should soon have access to lots and lots of fresh, locally grown veggies. Yeah!

2 comments:

  1. Love the cat photo...did you share your beans??

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  2. No, it was just the empty can to put in recycle. Since we don't eat any meat or seafood at all, the cats are not very interested in our "people" food!

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