Bear with me a moment, I’m about to get a little Southern on you all. I can’t help it. I’ve been here too long. Okra and black eyed peas… two foods I don’t think I ever had until I moved to the South, but now I love them both.
This weekend we went to a big BBQ festival in downtown Enid. You paid $7 for a plate and got to walk around to something like 30 different BBQ stands to sample their ribs and side dishes. Nick was in heaven. (So was Kaiser– he came with us, and got all the leftovers… plus a few sausages that one BBQer dropped on the ground). After about 3 very large ribs, I was meat-ed out and decided just to sample the sides. Homemade pork belly ice cream?? Heck yes!
Though my favorites were the ice cream and the skillet banana cake (shocking, I know), one other side caught my attention. It was an okra and bean salad of sorts, and it was good. So good, in fact, that I spent the next day dreaming about recreating it. So of course that’s what I did! I used my usual mustard vinaigrette but added some sour cream to get the salad good and creamy.
Okra, Corn and Black Eyed Pea Salad
- 2 tbsp light sour cream
- 2 tbsp cider vinegar
- 1 tbsp spicy brown mustard
- 1 tbsp honey
- 1 tbsp light olive oil or canola oil
- pepper, to taste
- 1 can black eyed peas, drained and rinsed
- 1.5 cups corn kernels
- 2 cups sliced okra
In a bowl, whisk together sour cream, vinegar, mustard, honey, olive oil and pepper.
Add vegetables.
And toss to coat! So easy!
If you really want to kick this salad up, use fresh corn and fresh okra. That’s what I intended to do, but of course I couldn’t find them at Walmart. Grocery fail.
This salad was really good the first day, but I will say, it didn’t do leftovers very well. If you’re familiar with okra, you’re familiar with its slimy texture. While this is something that I actually like about it, after sitting in the fridge overnight, it went a little TOO far. So pretty much, make this salad (it’s really good), but don’t make it the night before, and make sure you invite enough people over to finish the whole thing. Neighborhood BBQ???
I enjoyed this salad. However, to alleviate the slime, try using pickled okra. You can buy it from mild to hot. I like mild by the brand name Talk O’ Texas. Also, I added diced red onion, red pepper, celery and a mayo/sour cream blend. It was yummy. Thanks for this great salad idea! Glad I stumbled on your site.