An ap-‘pea’-ling side

In my mother’s world, Thanksgiving was not complete without a cold pea salad. Lorna Lo would make her version of what she ate at the long-gone Horatio’s, Kincaid’s or Ryan’s restaurants.

Frozen peas were defrosted, but never cooked, then mixed with mayonnaise and sour cream. Lots of ingredients make the salad crunchy — chopped water chestnuts, sweet onion, slivered snow peas and crispy bacon. It only needs to come together for one hour in the refrigerator.

Omit bacon for vegetarians, but add a bit more salt. If entertaining more than eight people, double the recipe. You need to include the snow peas — the shape contrasts with the round peas and the texture is crisp.

The salad combination is so good, it’s always stiff competition for the turkey. So delicious, you’ll want to gobble it up!

Lorna Lo’s Pea Salad

Ingredients:
• 8 slices bacon
• 4 cups frozen peas, defrosted
• 1 cup mayonnaise
• 1/2 cup sour cream
• 1 8-ounce can water chestnuts, drained and chopped
• 1/2 cup chopped sweet onion
• 1 teaspoon pepper
• 2 cups julienned snow peas
• Salt to taste

Directions:
Fry or bake bacon until crisp. Chop bacon and set aside. In a large bowl, mix peas (do not cook them), mayonnaise, sour cream, water chestnuts, onion and pepper.

Add 3/4 of the chopped bacon, then snow peas that have been peeled and julienned. Season with salt.

Refrigerate at least one hour. Just before serving, garnish with remaining bacon.

Serves 8 as a side dish.

Lynette Lo Tom has written three cookbooks and loves hearing about home cooks. Visit lynettecooks.com for more information.