This chilled pea salad is made with frozen peas, smoked almonds, water chestnuts, and a hint of curry. It’s a great addition to your summer salad recipe collection.
Photography Credit: Sally Vargas
Pea Salad – Perfect for Summer
Long warm summer days are perfect for cold pea salad!
I first encountered this delightful pea salad at a friend’s potluck. It was one of the dishes that everyone went back to for seconds.
How to Make Pea Salad
This recipe uses frozen peas, which you don’t even have to defrost, green onions, water chestnuts, and smoked almonds. The peas do thaw a bit, but they’re wonderful cold and crunchy too.
I’m not sure of the original source of this pea salad recipe, but since the recipe calls for Smokehouse Almonds, perhaps the almond company? It could easily be made with tamari almonds as well. You just want salty, crunchy, roasted almonds for this cold pea salad.
A Make-Ahead Salad
You can make this salad ahead of time on the day you want to serve it, just hold off adding the nuts so they retain their crispness. The cold peas and the crunchy almonds pair beautifully together.
Do you have a favorite pea salad? Please let us know about it in the comments.
Looking For More Great Summer Picnic Salads?
Updated June 6, 2019 : We spiffed up this post to make it sparkle! No changes to the original recipe.
Cold Pea Salad Recipe
PrintYou can make this salad ahead of time on the day you want to serve it, but add the almonds at the last minute. The salad is still good the next day but it’s best served on the day you make it.
You can substitute tamari almonds for the smokehouse almonds, in which case, you do not need to rinse them.
Wonderful served with sliced tomato and avocado and chicken for lunch.
Ingredients
- 16-ounces frozen petite peas (do not thaw)
- 6 ounces smokehouse almonds
- 1/2 cup chopped green onions
- 8 ounces chopped water chestnuts
- 2/3 cup mayonnaise
- 2 teaspoons yellow curry powder
- Salt and freshly ground pepper to taste
Method
1 Remove the excess salt and chop the almonds: In a fine-mesh strainer under cold running water, rinse the almonds to remove the excess salt. Spread between 2 paper towel layers and pat dry. Spread on a cutting board, and coarsely chop with a large knife.
2 Combine the salad ingredients: In a large bowl, whisk the mayonnaise, curry powder, salt, and pepper until smooth. Add the peas, scallions, and water chestnuts to the bowl.
Gently fold the salad into the mayonnaise dressing. Taste and add more salt and pepper, if you like. Refrigerate until ready to serve.
3 Add the almonds: Just before serving, stir in the chopped almonds.
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Elise Bauer
Elise Bauer is the founder of Simply Recipes. Elise launched Simply Recipes in 2003 as a way to keep track of her family’s recipes, and along the way grew it into one of the most popular cooking websites in the world. Elise is dedicated to helping home cooks be successful in the kitchen. Elise is a graduate of Stanford University, and lives in Sacramento, California.