Creamy Petite Pea Salad with Bacon and Cashews in Tomato Cups

 

Isn’t that a pretty picture above?  I love the different shades of green popping out of the bright red tomato cups!  I can’t believe that I actually took that picture or any of the following pictures!  But, I did; I keep practicing and practicing!

Petite Pea Salad with Bacon and Cashews in Tomato Cups is such a delicious salad that every time I make it, Tiffany threatens to eat the whole bowl!  And, sometimes, she does!  I made this salad for the Fairy Festival that we attended on June 1st.  I don’t usually put in it Tomato Cups, but I thought that would be a good way to present it at a picnic with fairies!  It’s also easy to transport for a picnic and can be made ahead of time.

Here’s what you do:

 

You need 6 slices of thick-cut bacon.  I buy mine from the grocery store butcher; it’s always cheaper than the packaged thick-cut bacon.  Then, I roll it up and put it in a plastic freezer container and freeze it until I need it.  Then, I take out just what I need and defrost it.

 

Once defrosted, cook it until it is nicely brown and crunchy-chewy.  I cook mine in the microwave.  I don’t have a dish that fits perfectly in my microwave for bacon, but use my glass pie plate lined with paper towels.

 

For thick-sliced bacon, I cook it approximately 1 minute per slice on full power.  But, I always undercook it first because I have burned bacon in the microwave more times than I can count!  For example, for the 6 slices above, I cooked them for about 4 minutes to start with and then increased it minute by minute, checking it each time, until it was done to my satisfaction.

 

 

I remove the bacon, immediately, from the paper towels using tongs.  If you don’t remove it while the bacon is hot, it might stick to the paper towel and man-oh-man is it ever a pain to remove bits of paper towels from bacon!

 

 

Once it has cooled, I chop it into small chunks and place in small plastic bag (like a sandwich bag) and refrigerate.

 

 

In the meantime, while I’m working on the bacon, I select two stalks of celery, wash them and trim them, reserving the celery leaves for garnish.  Place the celery leaves in a small plastic bag (like a sandwich bag) and refrigerate.

 

 

Then, I chop the celery into small pieces and place the chopped celery in a mixing bowl.

 

 

Then, I peel and chop a quarter of a red onion and add that to the mixing bowl along with the celery.

 

 

For this salad, I only use frozen petite peas.  Maybe I’m a “pea snob”, but the petite peas have a nice crunch to them.  Do not cook the peas; let them defrost in the bag while you’re preparing the bacon and chopping the red onion and celery.  Then, add them directly to your mixing bowl with the red onion and celery.

 

 

Stir to combine.  In a separate bowl, combine the Ranch dressing with the sour cream and stir.

 

 

You can use any brand of Ranch dressing you like.  I use this brand because it has no MSG and MSG gives me migraines!  No migraines for me!!!  Do you see the cow on the carton of sour cream?  Do you know that most Americans see a cow everyday?  To read about this amazing bit of trivia, read my earlier post:  Did You See a Cow Today?  Anyway, even though I live in the country surrounded by cows, the cow above was my cow for that day {grin}!

 

Add your spices to the Ranch dressing and sour cream mixture.  Stir well to combine.

 

 

Pour the dressing over the peas in the other mixing bowl and stir well to combine.

 

 

Cover with plastic wrap right down on top of the pea salad.  This is to prevent condensation from diluting the salad.  Cover and place in the refrigerator for at least two hours.

 

 

In the meantime, roughly chop your cashews and place in small plastic bag (like a sandwich bag).

 

 

Gather your tomatoes and wash and dry them.  If they are “on the vine” like the ones above, remove the stems and discard.

 

 

Slice the tops off of the tomatoes and set aside.  If the tomatoes don’t stand upright, slice a small piece off of the other side of the tomato to stabilize.

 

 

With a teaspoon or a mellon-baller, carefully remove the insides of the tomato and then turn them upside down on a paper towel lined plate so that they drain.  Reserve the tomato caps and the tomato insides in a storage container, refrigerate and use in another recipe.  I add mine to my Ground Turkey Spaghetti Sauce with Lots of Vegetables – it is oh so yummy!  Stay tuned for that recipe in a future post!

 

 

At this point, if you are transporting your pea salad somewhere else (like for a picnic or a pot-luck), open the lid of the bowl with the pea salad already in it and add your 3 bags of chopped bacon, cashews and celery leaves on top of the plastic wrap on the pea salad.  Also, pack up your tomato cups in another container for transport.

 

 

Cover the bowl with a tight lid and return to the refrigerator until ready to serve (whether at home or on your picnic).  Once you are ready to serve, add the chopped bacon and cashews to the prepared salad and stir to combine.  Fill each tomato cup and garnish with celery leaves.  Beautiful!

 

 

Once we got to our picnic destination and it was time to eat (10:30 a.m. in the morning, no less!  The kids were suddenly hungry!), I had a photography aide helping me with the rest of these photographs.  Her name is Angela and she and her two children, Miles and Katie, joined us for our Fairy Festival excursion.  See the list of posts at the bottom of this post for all the details.  Anyway, here’sssssss Angela!

 

 

My Creamy Petite Pea Salad with Bacon and Cashews in Tomato Cups model, Angela!

 

 

 

 

 

 

Didn’t Angela do a fantastic job assisting me?  Now a “professional food stylist” would have mopped up the runny dressing on the sides of the tomato cups.  But, we were outside, with no picnic table (we ate on blankets on the ground) trying to balance the tomato cups on the plate AND fill them AND garnish them AND then take endless pictures BEFORE we ate them!  Whew!  The life of a food blogger and recipe creator and professional photographer NOT {grin}!  But, I think these pictures are very “Pin-worthy” so pin to Pinterest to your heart’s content!  Thank you, Angela!  And, thank Miles again for telling me that the Pink Fairy Turkey Roll-ups were yummy!

Anyway, this Creamy Petite Pea Salad with Bacon and Cashews in Tomato Cups easily makes 12 servings in tomato cups.  If you are serving it on the side without the tomatoes, then it makes 6 healthy servings.  Unless, of course, you are with Tiffany; then it doesn’t make enough {grin}!

 

Here’s the recipe:

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Tootles,

Related Posts:

(other posts from the Fairy Festival)

1. Creative Fairy Gardens
2. How Do Fairies Get Their Wings?
3. Mini Cinnamon Muffin Melts
4. Pink Fairy Turkey Roll-ups
5. The Magic of Fairy Days

(other post mentioned above)

• Did You See a Cow Today?

Linky Parties and Blog Hops: