For all of you avid cooks out there you know what I mean.
There is an art to cooking and certain rules that have to be followed, but as long as we follow the basics, the rest is up to our imagination.
Years ago I was given a recipe of a delicious black eye pea salad which I thought was perfection and didn’t need any changes.
Here is the recipe for the original salad:
- 4 cans of black eyed peas, drained and rinsed
- 1 cup of chopped green bell pepper
- 1 cup of chopped yellow bell pepper
- 1 cup of chopped red bell pepper
- 1 cup of chopped red onion
- 1 1/2 cups cherry tomatoes quartered
- 1 cup chopped fresh parsley
Since then I replaced the parsley for cilantro and the tomatoes don’t always make it in. Also I prefer more veggies so I only use 3 cans of peas and add extra chopped peppers.
The dressing (did I mention this is the best part)consists of:
- 3/4 cup of balsamic vinegar
- 1/2 cup of olive oil
- 1/4 cup of sugar (I use splenda most of the times)
- 2 tsp of salt
- 1 tsp of black pepper
Today of all days I was really craving this salad as it’s great on its own, as a dip (scoops work the best), on toast as a bruschetta topping and its great tossed with cold pasta turning it into the best pasta salad ever!
Low and behold when I found that I had no cilantro, no parsley and wasn’t in the mood to put tomatoes into it……..so instead I,
- Chopped some watermelon
- chopped some fresh mint from the garden
- chopped some fresh basil from the garden
And added it to the peas, peppers and onions, and I have to say it turned into the best of the best black eye pea salad ever!
So now you understand what I mean by rules are meant to be broken!
Let your imagination run wild, experiment and enjoy!