Iowa Pea Salad
Grandma made this rich salad with fresh peas from the garden (frozen is fine), Tillamook Cheddar cheese, and hard-boiled eggs. The problem was I couldn’t find her recipe so a few years ago I came up with this.
I started with a recipe from the White Way Cafe in Durant, Iowa. The cafe is no more but the recipe lives on. I found the recipe in Jane and Michael Stern’s Square Meals. I swapped out the shredded Cheddar cheese with pea-sized cubes and replaced White Way’s boiled salad dressing with Grandma’s cooked salad dressing recipe. If you don’t like cooked dressing, Miracle Whip works fine.
Ingredients
- 16 ounces fresh or frozen peas
- 2 stalks celery, small dice
- 4 ounces Cheddar cheese, cut into pea-sized cubes
- 1/2 cup sweet pickle, small dice
- 2 hard-boiled eggs, small dice
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1 1/4 cups cooked salad dressing or Miracle Whip
Instructions
- If your peas are fresh, cook until just tender, cool under running water
- If using frozen peas, don’t boil. Soak peas in warm water until defrosted and drain well
- Combine peas, celery, cheese, pickle, eggs, and salt in a large bowl
- Gently fold dressing into the pea salad until combined
- Salt to taste
- Serve cold