We often refer to the recipes of Diane Kochilas. Lately, we have been using Country Cooking of Greece as our "go to" book. The recipes are reliable, tasty, and easy to follow. If there is one thing we know, when we want to try something new, Kochilas is an author to read for instructions!
Many times before we have made bean salad. We have made them with canned beans, dried beans, even the pre-made bean salad in a jar, and we "doctor it" to be our own. We have always considered other ways to make bean salad a little more interesting, without being too pungent with vinegar. Well, we found a recipe that was lovely and light. The dill and the garlic in this recipe blend together so nicely, it tastes elegant and you don't realise how easy it really can be to make! This is good for using the black eyed peas in a way that is not soup. They bring their own colour to the dish, so you do not need a variety of beans to make this one pretty!
One note of mention, if you are using the dried black eyed peas, you should start this recipe the day before to soak the beans. Soaking beans of any kind will cut down the amount of cooking time by half. If you don't soak them that's fine, just allow for the extra boiling time needed to make sure the beans are not at all crunchy.
For this recipe, you will need the following:
2 cup dried black eyed peas
1 onion, chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 1/2 cups dill fronds
1/2 cup oil
2 to 3 TBSP red wine vinegar
If you have soaked the peas or not, you still have to boil them. Start them in cold water and bring it up to a boil. Allow the peas to boil in this water for about 15 minutes. You will see the water turn a murky blackish colour, and that is when you know you must change the water. The water turning grey and murky is a sign tat some of the starches are coming out of the peas and less gas in your system! It is a good practise to rinse beans a few times while boiling, specifically to save you the gassy after effects!
So, strain the peas from the dark water and rinse them well. Return them to the pot with fresh water, and bring it all back to a boil again for another 10 minutes. This time, you will notice the water will be cloudy, but not as blackish and murky. You will still see that it is tinted, and that is how you will know it is time to strain the peas and change the water. After about 10 minutes, drain the water and strain the peas. Rinse the peas well, and put them back in the pot with fresh water.
On this third time boiling, add about a tablespoon of salt to the water and bring it all back to a boil unit the peas are soft and buttery. The salt will help break down the rest of the starch, and will add a bit of flavour to the dish. Notice there is no other salt in the recipe.
You want to make sure that all the black eyed peas are cooked through the centre, and that they are soft. There is nothing worse than biting into a raw bean! Sometimes, the skin off the black eyed peas will start to peel off, or peel away from the heart of the pea. Do not worry about that, just keep them all in the sieve to use.
Allow the peas to cool to a temperature that you can comfortably handle with bare hands. It is not that we are using our hands to mix, but you want the black eyed peas cool enough so they do not cook the remainder of the ingredients.
Now, let's prepare the remaining ingredients.
Chop the onion into a fine dice. That means that the pieces of onion are as small as the black eyed peas. You do not want big onion pieces with little beans. So, cut them about the same size as the peas. Put the onions in a mixing bowl.
Pick the dill fronds. The fronds are the fluffy part at the end of the stems. That is the part of the dill that is commonly used, and "frond" is the real name for it. The stems become too chewy and stringy, so we use only the fronds. Once you have cleaned the dill, put that in the mixing bowl with the onions. You do not need to chop the dill, but you can if you want to.
Next, add the minced garlic to the mixing bowl. Minced or chopped will depend on how you like your garlic. Sometimes, we just slice the garlic, but that is very powerful when biting into the salad. We usually like a mild garlic flavour, so we mince the garlic well.
Once you have the onion, dill, and garlic in the mixing bowl, add the cooled peas.
Mix the ingredients well. Make sure the onion and dill are evenly distributed throughout the black eyed peas. You will start to see the different colours and textures all around the bowl. Now, add the vinegar. It is red wine vinegar, but you could use apple cider vinegar or white vinegar. Red wine vinegar is lighter in flavour than the other two, and has a more gentle tartness. We add the vinegar first to make sure that it is evenly coating all the black eyed peas.
Lastly, add the oil. You can pour the oil all around the mixing bowl to try to coat all the ingredients. Or, you can add some oil, mix, add a little more oil, mix again, and continue that way until all the oil has been added and all the black eyed peas are coated. We like to pour the oil in spiralling circles around the mixing bowl, thinking that we are covering everything.
The black eyed peas salad you have just made is ready to serve. It can be served warm or at room temperature. If you put it in the refrigerator and it gets cold, you may notice the olive oil become slightly solid. Allow the salad to come to room temperature before serving.
This is a delicious, light salad that gives a good serving of protein and flavour! We are still impressed with how pretty the green dill and white onions look against the black eyed peas. This is one salad that can be served as a side dish in any season, but would be perfect for a picnic lunch! We look forward to having the occasion to make this salad again.
"You should secretly give from what you have to those in need, so that you receive from God, Who sees in secret, a hundred times more, as well as life eternal in the age to come (cf. Mt. 6:4; Mk. 10:30)."
From St. Gregory Palamas (The Philokalia Vol. 4; Faber and Faber pg. 329):
Source of quote: http://theodorakis.net/orthodoxquotescomplete.html
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