Bacon Pea Salad – Easy side dish

Ingredients in Pea Salad

This easy pea salad is jam-packed with flavor. It’s the perfect side dish for potlucks or next to a holiday meal like Easter brunch or Thanksgiving dinner!

Peas – Frozen peas are the best option for this salad as they’re sweet, tender, and don’t require cooking. To make pea salad with fresh garden peas, shell them and boil them for 5-8 minutes or until tender. Drain well and cool completely.

Add-Ins – I add crisp bacon, cheddar cheese, and red onion.

Variations

• Use real bacon bits in place of cooked and crumbled bacon.
• We love sharp cheddar cheese best in this pea salad recipe but you can swap in your favorite cheeses.
• Green onion or sweet white onion can be used in place of red onion.
• Chopped boiled eggs can be added if you’d like.

Dressing—This tangy and creamy pea salad dressing takes just a couple of minutes to prepare. Mayo is mixed with sour cream, a splash of vinegar, sugar, salt, and black pepper. Simple yet perfect.

• For a lighter dressing, replace the sour cream with Greek yogurt.

Holly’s Tips

• You do not need to cook frozen peas to make green pea salad – run them under cold water to thaw.
• Any frozen peas work but tiny peas, sometimes called baby peas or baby sweet peas contain more sugar and are preferred.
• The dressing in the recipe is quick and adds the best flavor; you can replace it with Ranch dressing or premade coleslaw dressing in a pinch.

How to Make Bacon Pea Salad

Here are the steps to making a delicious pea salad with bacon:

1. Thaw the peas by running them under cold water.
2. Cook the bacon until crispy and then crumble.
3. Whisk the dressing ingredients (recipe below) in a large mixing bowl. Add the peas, bacon, and onion, and stir to coat with the dressing.

Voila. It’s so easy!