Guest blogger Corie Cameron cooks beautiful food at home. She’s letting us in her kitchen for great posts using Hempler’s products. Check out more from her on her site, Good Life Everyday.
Spring is here, and then summer, and that means BBQs and picnics galore! But before that, Easter has arrived.
Pea salad is one of those nostalgic picnic dishes that everyone has had. Except me. Last summer was the first time I’ve ever had or made a pea salad. I started with a zippy homemade mayonnaise, mixed in some peas and a blackened, charred onion and finally topped it with the Hempler’s Uncured Bacon.
Bacon makes everything better in my opinion, and Hempler’s makes my favorite bacon. For this recipe, the bacon is cooked until just chewy, which is different from how I normally like my bacon — crispy and crumbly. The chewiness is just better in this salad, I think, but If you prefer a crispier piece of bacon, go for it.
Just thinking about this pea salad makes me want to go make bacon…
Ingredients:
6 strips of Hempler’s Applewood Uncured Bacon
1/2 red onion, charred on a grill, under the broiler, or in a cast iron pan on the stove until blackened
1 pound frozen peas, defrosted
1 cup homemade mayonnaise — recipe below
Homemade Mayonnaise:
1 whole egg at room temperature
1/2 tbsp lemon juice
1/2 tbsp white wine vinegar (Apple cider vinegar works well too)
1 tsp Dijon Mustard
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp pepper
1 cup avocado oil (olive oil works, but I find the flavor too pronounced for a lot of things. The avocado oil is less strong-tasting.)
Instructions:
Put the egg, lemon juice, vinegar, mustard, salt and pepper in the bowl of an immersion blender and puree until smooth. While still running the blender, slowly drizzle in the oil until the mixture is thick and creamy.
Cook your Hempler’s bacon in a frying pan or skillet over medium heat until just cooked and slightly crispy.
Let the bacon cool on a paper towel-lined plate to drain off some of the fat.
Char your onion on the grill, and then cut into a medium dice and set aside.
Slice the bacon into ½-inch chunks and set aside.
In a large mixing bowl, add the almost all of the bacon, onion, peas, and 1/2 cup of the mayonnaise. Stir, taste for seasoning and add more mayonnaise if you like. I liked mine fairly saucy, so I add a little extra mayo.
Add the leftover crumbled bacon you had reserved and serve. I guarantee this will be the first salad to disappear at your next gathering!
Thanks Corie! For the full step-by-step recipe with pictures along the way, check out Corie’s blog.
