I’m doing that thing you are not supposed to do…,trying a new recipe for a party.
I am attending a fish fry/BBQ tommorow, and I am supposed to bring a side. I had decided to bring “peas and rice”, but just realized I don’t know how to have it hot. I am going after a two hour meeting. I might be able to go home first, but would rather not count on it, and don’t know how that would help.
So I’m wanting to serve it room temp, like a salad.
I found this recipe
I’ve made pigeon peas and rice forever, but never a salad. Also, I don’t have fresh celery. I have some sad celery that I was going to use to cook the peas. I have lots of sweet peppers.
I also have soaked chickpeas I was going to use for a chickpea and orzo salad,
I can see it working with leftover arroz con gandules. My neighbor makes an excellent spinach and rice salad which is pretty much as easy as it sounds, though she cooks the rice so that its heat will wilt and incorporate the spinach. She then adds celery (which I could take or leave), scallion, and Italian or balsamic vinaigrette.
I was going to say this, but also that both tend to harden as they cool, so you may want to err on the side of cooking softer than you might if serving hot.
I used to make my uncle’s french lentil salad often for picnics or summer potlucks, and eventually started adding couscous or quinoa to round it out a bit - they also have a great texture room temp or cold, if you want to swap them in your peas and rice.
I wouldn’t worry about omitting celery. I wouldn’t add extra raw bell pepper. Too strong of a flavour IMO. The one red pepper called for in the recipe will have enough crunch.
