Ham and Blackeyed Pea Pasta Salad a la Sue

April 13th, 2015
by: Sue

I created this dish today because I had some left over ham I wanted to make into a salad. I decided to add a little pasta into the mix and blackeyed peas because I didn’t have English peas and besides, hey, this is Texas not England.

Cook the macaroni and frozen peas and put the eggs on to boil.

Fill a 3 quart pan 2/3 full of water, and bring to a boil. Add:

1 1/2 cups elbow macaroni or shell macaroni
1 package frozen blackened peas (or if you insist, English peas)

Lower heat and cook on medium low.
Cook about 12 minutes, or until the pasta is al dente and peas barely done.

In a small sauce pan put six eggs, cover with water , add a teaspoon of salt and bring to a boil. Boil for a minute or two, then put on the lid and turn off the heat. Your eggs will be done in 17 minutes.

While this is cooking, prepare the ham:

2 cups diced ham
2 cups ham chopped in the food processor

Chop the vegetables:

1 sweet onion, fine dice
1 bell pepper, diced
4 stalks celery diced

Make the dressing:

Into a small bowl add then mix together:

1 cup mayo (or 1/2 cup mayo and 1/2 cup buttermilk)
2 T spicy brown mustard
1 t. garlic powder
1 T dried Thyme
1 T dried Basil
1/2 cup chopped fresh mint
1 T worcestershire sauce
Black pepper to taste
Lemon to taste

Drained the cooked pasta and peas; cool them quickly with cold water then allow them to drain thoroughly.

Mix everything but the eggs together. Peel and halve the eggs, placing them on top of the salad if you can get them to peel cleanly. If you can’t just chop the suckers up and stir into the salad.

Place in covered bowl and chill thoroughly.

This is a work in progress, will tinker with it some more