Texas Caviar

This recipe is not only delicious but healthy!  Who knew such a thing could exist?  It is vegetarian and vegan.  This dish was actually brought to my high school graduation party by a family friend of ours and once I tasted it I knew we needed the recipe.  It is so easy to make and has a lot of protein because of the black-eyed peas.  I hope this becomes a new staple at your parties or just in everyday life.

Ingredients:

2- cans black-eyed peas ( rinsed and drained, total of 15 oz)

1-10 ounce can diced tomatoes and green chilis drained (rotel)

1 medium green pepper finely chopped

1 small red onion finely chopped

1/2 cup Light Italian dressing

2 Tablespoons Lime Juice

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/4- teaspoon pepper

1 medium ripe Avocado pitted and cut into cubes

 

Steps:

1.Combine the black-eyed peas, the tomatoes and chili’s, green pepper and red onion into your serving bowl.

2.In a separate bowl combine the Italian dressing, lime juice, salt and pepper.

3.Pour the combined sauce over the the black-eyed peas mixture.

4.Stir until everything is coated by the sauce.

5.Let sit for about an hour to have the flavors meld.

6.Right before serving take the cubed avocado and add to the mixture.

7.Stir the avocado in gently.

8.Enjoy!

Tips and Tricks:

• Make sure to rinse both of the black-eyed peas and the tomatoes and chili’s, you do not want the juices from the can because otherwise the sauce will taste off.
• I did a couple of variations in the recipe as you see.  Instead of the red onion I chose to use leeks over onions.  This is because my family is sensitive to onions.  There is a difference between onion, leeks and shallots as Gurney’s shows it is not very much but flavor wise it can make or break a dish.
• Also instead of using green bell pepper I used red.  This was more a flavor choice because my family and I like the flavor of red bell pepper instead of green.
• There are actually diced tomatoes and green chili’s in a can that is called Ro-tel.  This is usually used for Queso dips but for my recipe it has a duel purpose.
• For the Light Italian dressing we always chose to go with Paul Newman’s dressings because they are very good tasting, no artificial colors, flavors or preservatives, and 100% of the profits made go to charity.

-Abbey