Brown Rice Salad with Black-Eyed Peas

Having missed the requisite black-eyed peas and greens last New Year's Day, there wasn't a chance I'd let another new year dawn without them. I was surprised to find only one recipe in the book using this important and versatile little bean--Brown Rice Salad with Black-Eyed Peas (p85). Thankfully, it's a recipe that lends itself well to New Year's Day consumption.

In the recipe introduction Robin states this "is a deliciously easy way to serve the traditional New Year's dish," and I wholeheartedly agree. Once you've got your peas and rice cooked, this salad comes together lickety split. The only modifications I made were to add some lightly roasted kale and spinach, and since I was out of fresh parsley, I skipped it. Next go round I'll make sure to have the parsley because it really would have brightened things up. Aside from the rice and black-eyed peas, without which you wouldn't have a salad of course, the ingredient that makes this dish is the toasted pecans. In fact, EXTRA pecans would make it even better!

Robin also states that the dish "can" be made in advance of serving, but my recommendation is to definitely make it ahead and let marinate. Mr. V and Grandma V both thought it quite good, in fact Mr. V had three (yes three!) bowls and had some again the next day. I didn't particularly care for the dish until it had been in the fridge for a good hour. I could taste the olive oil too much and things seemed a bit disparate, but once everything had hung out together for a while, this salad came together in a most wonderful way. I most certainly won't be waiting another year to have this again.

--The Divine Miss V