For many, eating black-eyed peas at New Year’s is considered good luck, so here is a healthy recipe for anyone who wants to join this tradition. The original version is fairly mild for those who like it that way, but the flavor can easily be pumped up with a little jalapeno, red chile powder or paste, or a few drops of hot hot sauce 🙂 .
Black-Eyed Pea Salad
- 2 cups of black-eyed peas (dried & cooked, or frozen & boiled quickly to warm)
- 1/4 cup chopped fennel
- 3 radicchio leaves, chopped
- 1/4 cup parsley, chopped
- 1/4 cup red onion, chopped
- 1/2 teaspoon dried basil
- 2 teaspoons pistachio oil (any oil will work, but a nutty oil gives a nice flavor!)
- 2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar
- 2 tablespoons hemp seeds
- sliced avocado
- diced jalapeno, cayenne pepper, red chili paste, or hot sauce (optional)
Toss together the black-eyed peas, fennel, radicchio, parsley, and onion. Add the basil, pistachio oil, balsamic vinegar, hemp seeds and the hot additions if using them, and stir well. Serve and garnish with avocado slices.
I had some beautiful radicchio leaves, so used them as a vehicle for the tasty salad…..
Happy New Year!
Kelli's Vegan Kitchen 
I’m amazed by how many ways you create to serve common foods like these peas. I get inspired too…and looked up radicchio plant, which I’d never bought, and then pistaccio, because I’d never seen pistaccio OIL used in cooking. Thanks for expanding my horizons. The magenta leaves creates a really nice presentation and accent color.
I always loved black-eyed peas, yet in Germany they do not seem to be known at all. Once I saw them in a health food store, I was hesitant. Now I have a plan to flow into 2013. Thanks!