Celery Bean Salad (Which Needs A Better Name)

There’s a million recipes for celery salad on the internet and I don’t like the looks of any of them!  As often happens, I had a bunch of celery languishing in the fridge. I wasn’t in the mood to make chicken soup, and I don’t really like celery sticks with peanut butter. I wanted a salad. So, I googled. And after reading all the ingredients from all the recipes, I took the bits and pieces I liked from each and made my own.

It’s really good, too.

The stars of the recipe are black eyed peas (why are they called peas? They are beans!) and celery. And the trick is to cut the celery stalks in half the long way, then slice thin. Also, dice all the other crunchy ingredients finely. You’re trying to make a balance between the creamy bean and the crunchy veggies, so one doesn’t overpower the other.

• Black Eye Beans (Peas!): one well-drained and rinsed 16 oz can, or if you like, your own fresh soaked/cooked equivalent
• 2 big ribs of celery
• 3 radishes
• one smallish carrot
• parsley or carrot tops. Yes, I use carrot tops as a parsley substitute. Yummy!
• Salt and pepper
• Ranch dressing – just barely enough to lightly coat everything.

That’s it!  And now you can be picky like me and say “I don’t like this recipe, I’m going to change it!”  You could add frozen peas (better than mushy canned ones), or diced olives, or Parmesan cheese… or whatever you like.  Make it your own!

Yum.