Sweet Pea 7 Layered Salad Recipe

This story and layered salad recipe first appeared on A Cook and Her Books blogspot May 17, 2010.

Contrary to what many believe, May, not December, is the busiest month for my colleagues in the mommy business. You may think that December, with class parties and church happenings, would be the craziest time of the year, but the end of the school year seems to slip on us and before we know it, we’re slammed with breathlessly important occasions such as Teacher Appreciation Days and Fifth Grade Graduation and the End of Year Soccer/Beta Club/Band Party. All of these occasions demand food and eventually folks tire of pizza and that’s where the mommies step up and bring a covered dish.

We are the Casserole Queens

The queen of the covered dish is my friend Julie. We’ve been friends since college, and twenty years after rooming together at UGA, we still seemed stunned that we spend our lives in carpool lines and not behind desks. Julie is a first-class cook and is always the first to volunteer to bring a dish to an event. In our weekly call from the carpool line, she told me that her latest success was a layered salad. If you’re not familiar with the layered salad, it’s the kind of recipe that Paula Deen has built an empire around. It’s a potluck staple, a green salad layered in a pretty glass bowl with green peas, onions, bacon and cheese, then topped with a creamy mayonnaise dressing.

“It was a big hit,” she said. It kind of surprised her, but “you know, nobody cooks anymore. They eat in restaurants or if they cook, they open a box first.” We’ve decided that we’re the last of the casserole queens, the ones who cook from scratch and carry a dish to every family, church and school gathering. I suppose layered salad is kind of a cold casserole, with the base of lettuce substituting for pasta or rice, and the requisite green vegetable, peas in the middle. Topped with cheese, and mayonnaise subbing for the cream of whatever soup, and you see what I mean.

Church Cookbook Recipes are Best

Julie’s recipe is from her church cookbook, and it’s from Miss Ethel Arrington, a woman who never married and played the organ at the church. Miss Ethel Arrington specified a can of LeSueur Peas in her layered salad, and Julie doesn’t substitute. The silver can is a guilty pleasure for me – I can’t think of LeSueur (“Very Young Small Early”) peas without memories of my Grandmother Kitty, with her Montgomery, Alabama, accent, saying “LeSu-wuuuuu-er peas.” She served them at all family gatherings, convinced that the only green vegetable that her many grandchildren would eat is LeSueur brand peas. On the menu: cooked ham, potato salad with and without celery (another story for another time), heated canned peas, blueberry Jell-O salad (the kind with the cream cheese topping) and, if we were lucky, her homemade itty-bitty biscuits.

While I keep a can of LeSueur peas in the pantry, I’m more likely to use frozen English peas when I cook. To my mind, peas are one of the few vegetables that are nearly as good frozen as fresh. Peas are a frozen pantry staple for me – I toss a handful of peas into nearly-done stir fries and beef stews.

Frozen peas are a kitchen workhorse, too. They complete the sacred triumvirate in a meat, potato and green vegetable meal. Peas bring their sweet mellow selves to many a potluck dish. In a pinch, the bag of frozen peas makes a handy ice pack for boo-boos. (At the very least, it will get a giggle from your child.)

Try My 7 Layer Salad Recipe

My layered salad is adapted from Allrecipes.com, perhaps the church cookbook of the internet age. Be true to Miss Ethel Arrington (and my grandmother), and use two cans of LeSueur peas, drained, instead of the frozen, thawed, English peas.

Sweet peas are the genius ingredient in this dish. Amid sharp onion, crunchy lettuce, creamy mayonnaise dressing and salty bacon, the emerald spheres make sweet pops in your mouth. Spice up the dish with a sprinkle of wasabi peas on top of the final dish.

Sweet Pea 7 Layer Salad Recipe

1 lb. bacon, cooked, crumbled, drained

1 head of iceberg lettuce, chopped

1 bunch green onions, all of white and some green, chopped fine

1 (12 oz.) package frozen green peas, thawed

1 ½ cups shredded Cheddar cheese

1 cup chopped cauliflower florets

1 ¼ cups mayonnaise

2 tablespoons sugar

4 perfectly cooked hard-boiled eggs, peeled and diced

A handful of wasabi peas, optional

1. In a small bowl, stir together mayonnaise and sugar. Set aside while you assemble the salad.
2. Use a large, clear glass bowl, if you have one. If you don’t have one, any large, deep bowl will do. Place the lettuce in the bottom of the bowl. Top with a layer of onion, then follow with peas, shredded cheese and cauliflower. Spread mayonnaise mixture on top of salad. Sprinkle bacon and egg on top. Cover and refrigerate until ready to serve.
3. Add a little kick to your layered salad with my favorite crunchy/spicy snack – wasabi peas across the top of individual servings.

More Comfort Food Classics from A Cook and Her Books

Practice roux-making skills with my tomato gravy recipe. Tomato gravy is not a red sauce. It’s a creamy gravy flavored with chopped, summer-fresh tomatoes served over split buttermilk biscuits. 

Try Chef Scott Peacock’s Chicken and Dumplings recipe. A refined Southern classic that will build your reputation as a legendary cook.

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