Black-Eyed Pea and Corn Salad
Black-eyed pea and corn salad delivers a bold Southern delicacy with wonderful textures starring black-eyed peas, corn, cherry tomatoes, cucumber, and avocado with a luscious, sweet, citrusy salad dressing. An ideal make-ahead for tailgates, picnics, barbecues, and potlucks.
Black-eyed pea has a flavor that outshines all other legumes. No wonder it’s hailed all around the world and enjoyed in so many tasty ways.
This North African native is close to my heart, so when the weather is blistering outside, I love this guy in a salad. Healthy, delicious, and easy, what more could we want?
Why Turn Black-Eyed Peas and Corn Into a Salad
Traditionally, Southerners serve black-eyed peas on New Year’s Day to bring good luck and prosperity for the year. That’s because the black-eyed peas resemble pennies or coins. Did I ever tell you how good for us they are?
Turning black-eyed peas into a salad makes for a versatile and easily customizable dish that’s perfect any time of year (New Year’s resolutions?). And since I can’t help Immafying everything, here is my take on an ordinary ingredient for an extraordinary recipe.
How to Make Black-Eyed Pea and Corn Salad
Cooking Black-Eyed Peas
To make your own peas instead of using canned:
- Rinse 1-1½ cups of dried black-eyed pea beans and pick out and discard foreign objects.
- Soak – Cover beans with water in a large pot with 3-4 inches of cold water. Put the lid on and soak overnight or for a couple of hours.
- Drain the soaked beans, rinse, and place the beans in a Dutch oven or pressure cooker.
- Cook – Follow the instructions for cooking them in your pressure cooker. It takes roughly 8-12 minutes to cook. To cook them in a stockpot or Dutch oven, cook the beans for 30-60 minutes, depending on how tender you like them. (Photos 1-3)
Making the Salad
- Juice the orange, lemon, and lime into a non-reactive bowl. Add the cumin, honey, garlic, onion, oil, and fresh herbs. Whisk well, then season with salt and pepper to taste. Refrigerate until ready to use.
- Black-Eyed Peas – Drain and rinse cooked or canned beans and place in a large bowl. Repeat this process for the corn. Add the diced red onion, cucumbers, bell pepper, and cherry tomatoes. Dice avocados and drizzle with lemon to prevent discoloration before adding to the salad.
- Dress – Pour the dressing over the salad, stir well to coat the vegetables with the dressing, cover, and chill in the fridge for a couple of hours before serving. Stir in occasionally so the flavors meld. (Photo 4)
- Serve – Stir one more time and enjoy.
Recipe Notes & Tips
- Dressing swap. Use your favorite bottled vinaigrette to save time. No judgment. 😉
- Add feta cheese for added protein and flavor.
- Add a dash of hot sauce to the dressing for a kick of heat. And if it’s not enough, dice a jalapeno, habanero, or scotch bonnet pepper into the salad.
- Ham and bacon are savory additions that turn it into a one-dish meal.
- Soaking black-eyed peas makes cooking faster, but you only need 10 more minutes to cook unsoaked beans.
Make-Ahead & Leftovers
Assemble and dress the salad except for the avocado and store it in the fridge. It tastes even better the next day. Stir in the avocado when ready to serve.
The citrus dressing stays fresh for a week or two in the refrigerator. Feel free to use it on any salad.
Perfect Pairings With Black-Eyed Pea and Corn Salad
Grilled meat goes fantastically with bean salads. Try grilled lamb chops or pompano, depending on your mood. Broiled salmon is excellent if you don’t want to light the grill.
More Amazing Recipes for Your New Year
- Corned Beef and Cabbage
- Southern Collard Greens
- Delicious New Year’s Party Recipes
- Recipes for Prosperity
By Imma
This blog post was originally published in June 2017 and has been updated with additional tips and beautiful photos
Black Eyed Pea and Corn Salad
Ingredients
Salad Dressing
- 1 medium orange
- 1 lemon
- 1 lime
- 1 teaspoon (5g) minced garlic
- ¼ cup (24g) minced onion
- ½-1 teaspoon (1-3g) ground cumin
- ¼ cup (60ml) olive oil
- 1 tablespoon (21g) honey
- 2-3 tablespoons (8-12g) fresh herbs (cilantro, parsley, basil, oregano, etc.)
- salt and pepper to taste
The Salad
- 3-4 cups (500-700g) cooked black-eyed peas
- 1 15-ounce can whole kernel corn
- ½ cup (80g) diced red onion
- 1-2 cups (150-300g) cherry tomatoes, halved
- 1-2 cups (100-200g) chopped cucumbers
- ½ bell pepper, diced
- 1 small avocado, pitted, peeled, and chopped
Instructions
The Salad
- Juice the orange, lemon, and lime into a non-reactive bowl. Add the cumin, honey, garlic, onion, oil, and herbs. Whisk everything together, then adjust the salt and pepper to taste. Refrigerate until ready to use.
- Drain and rinse cooked black-eyed peas and place them in a large bowl. Repeat this process with the corn. Then, add diced cucumber, bell pepper, and cherry tomatoes.
- Dice the avocado and drizzle with lemon to prevent discoloration before adding to the rest of the vegetables.
- Pour the dressing over the salad, stir to coat, cover, and chill in the fridge for a couple of hours before serving, stirring it occasionally to make sure the flavors meld.
- Stir before serving.
Optionally Cooking the Beans
- Rinse dried black-eyed peas, pick through, and discard any foreign objects.
- Add them to a large pot, covering them with 3-4 inches of cold water. Soak overnight or for 2-3 hours.
- Drain the soaked beans, rinse, and place the beans in a Dutch oven or pressure cooker. Cooking them on the stovetop takes 45 minutes to 1½ hours, depending on how fresh the beans are. The pressure cooker takes roughly 8-12 minutes to cook them.
Tips & Notes:
- If cooking the beans yourself, cook them until tender but not overcooked to avoid mushy beans.
- You can add more flavor with herbs and spices like basil, thyme, ginger, chili peppers, and cayenne pepper.
- Please remember that the nutritional information is a rough estimate and can vary significantly based on the products used in the recipe.
I love this and almost all of your other recipes. I get your newsletter and really like the way you break down the ins and outs of your recipes with very good information on the ingredients used. I even have my husband trying some of your recipes (he’s retired and, heavens, he needs something to occupy his time beside wearing my nerves thin). Overall, I just plain enjoy your site and all it has to offer.
You (and your husband) just made my day. Thank you for sticking around. 🙂
Delicious. Like an Iraqi black eyed bean salad, just in that one we don’t add corn, or honey in the dressing, so I added less honey for my taste. Otherwise delicious 🙂
Awesome !Good to know it worked out well. Thanks for the feedback.
I have a small amount of black eyed peas left in a packet and wasn’t sure what to do with them. I’m planning to make this soon. I think I’ll add some extra cumin and fresh chilli too. Then I’ll probably buy another packet to make this recipe again! Sounds yummy. I’m also thinking of making the Southern Black Eyed Peas stew on this website. I’m from Australia.
Welcome to my blog. Please do let me know how these all turned out for you. Enjoy!
I finally made this recipe and I love it!!! I’ll be making it again. It’s a great dish for summer.
Hi there!!! Should I be using ground cumin or cumin seeds for this recipe??
Thanks ☺
Hi Kay, I used ground cumin.
Hi Imaa.
Omg I made this a few hours ago and its delicious . Initially I was hesitant about using orange juice and cumin, but they blend perfectly ..yum yum.Love it .you are always my ‘go to girl’ for new recipes and you never fail to please.
Just to let you and others know I didn’t have any limes and it still tasted great without them,also I just used regular mixed herbs instead of parsley and cilantro and instead of only using black eyed beans I used a can of of ‘5 Bean Salad’ which contains kidney beans,borlotti beans,black eye beans, pea navy beans,lima beans and sweetcorn,oh also i didn’t use as much honey as you suggested but as you always say ‘adjust to taste’.
Am now planning to try your other salad recipes
Thanks Imma
Thank your for sharing, Ola! Glad it turns out great for you. Can’t wait for you to try my other recipes. 🙂
This looks and sounds delicious, I have only cooked them for meals, never in a salad, but can’t wait to try, will let you know what my 5 men (4 sons& husband) think, ages from 35-66,
very old fashioned & pickie.
Awesome! Can’t wait.
I made this last night and I LOVE the way the orange and lime adds a sweet yet zesty flavor. I can see myself bringing this to a cookout in the future.
Awesome! Thanks for taking the time to let me know . Glad you enjoyed it .
Always looking for something a little different when it comes to salad. This looks delicious.
Thanks Donna! Do let me know how it works out for you.
Very quick and easy recipe for instance cooking. I will make it for my kids. Thank you for sharing such a nice recipe. And please share some more vegan breakfast recipes.
vegan breakfast recipes
I will do my best to share more. Thanks !
We have a heat wave here and this is just perfect timing ! Everything dome quickly is more than welcome ! Pinning ! Thank you !
Beautiful, one of my favorite salads is a tex-mex black-eyed pea salad, with onions, tomatoes, bellpeppers, tortilla pieces, hot sauce and a tangy cilantro vinegar dressing (though half of the time I will use parsley because my mom thinks cilantro tastes like bed bugs – which is a common occurrence if you are not used to it, I thought so at the beginning but then it grew on me). Yours sounds like a more floral version of it, interesting.
Ps: though they are inferior to home cooked, I can usually get great quantities of canned black eyed beans from lidl when they have portuguese specials because of feijoada (if I wrote that right – lol). So I don’t have to cook them myself! Looking for portuguese/brazilian stores might help.
It looks great, i like it. You know, i grew up eating a whole lot lot of Black Eye peas, but i’ve never had it in a salad that i can remember. I’ve had it in soups and stews and as a side dish but never in a salad. So great to see one. I like that there is Orange Citrus in the Marinade. Even some Orange zest would be great as well.
Yummy! Just can’t wait to give this a try. Need some healthy sides to take on a family reunion.
Looks yummy!! Will try for a vegan father for Father’s Day bbq!!
YES! It would be a great addition.
The photos show the salad in perfect layers but the recipe says to stir the dressing in several times -which would mix up all of the layers. Am I interpreting the directions correctly?
Hi Renee! The photos were prior to mixing so we can show the layers first and it really looks good 🙂