How To Make Pea Salad

This easy Homemade Pea Salad recipe makes the perfect side dish for summer barbecues, family get-togethers, and weeknight dinners. Loaded with peas, cheddar cheese, red onion and lots of bacon! This is sure to be a crowd favorite!

Love easy salad recipes? Then you need to try my Cucumber Avocado Salad and my BLT Pasta Salad!

Recipe for Pea Salad

Pea salad is a classic American side dish that’s as colorful as it is delicious! It’s packed with bright green peas, red onion, cheddar cheese, and bacon. Then, all of those ingredients are tossed with a dressing made from sour cream, mayonnaise, red wine vinegar, salt, pepper, and a little pinch of sugar.

This Homemade Pea Salad recipe is sweet, savory, and packed with bright flavors. It’s a great side dish for summer barbecues, weekend family get-togethers, and busy weeknight dinners!

I love making this Homemade Pea Salad whenever we’re grilling out because it’s a cool element to a lot of hot, smokey food. This is also a great change of pace for holiday recipes. Trust me, this side dish is sure to be captivating and a crowd pleaser on any occasion! It’s also a great dish to make ahead of time and have ready in advance!

What’s in Pea Salad?

To make your own easy pea salad, you only need a handful of ingredients including: frozen green peas, cubed cheddar cheese, diced red onion, and crumbled cooked bacon. For the homemade dressing, you’ll need sour cream, mayonnaise, granulated sugar, red wine vinegar, salt, and freshly cracked black pepper. That’s it!

Feel free to swap some ingredients out to best fit your taste. For example, you can use white cheddar or swiss cheese instead of cheddar. You can also use apple cider vinegar or white wine vinegar instead of red wine vinegar.

How To Make Pea Salad

Start by assembling the pea salad by adding the peas, cheese, diced onion, and cooked bacon to a medium-sized bowl.

Then, make the dressing by adding the sour cream, mayonnaise, sugar, and vinegar to a small bowl and mix to combine. Season with salt and pepper to taste.

Pour the dressing on top of the peas mixture, and toss to coat. Serve immediately, or chill for an hour or two before serving!

How to Store Leftovers

This Homemade Pea Salad is best enjoyed the day that it’s made, but it will keep in the fridge in an airtight container for up to 3 days. Do not freeze!

Variations

• Add more veggies! Chopped bell peppers, diced celery and shredded carrots would be delicious!
• Change up the cheese! Instead of cheddar, you could use white cheddar, swiss, colby jack or pepper jack.
• Change up the protein: Instead of bacon substitute ham, bacon bits or turkey bacon or omit to keep it vegetarian.
• Save on calories: By swapping the sour cream with greek yogurt.
• Add egg! To this Homemade Pea Salad for extra protein.
• Add pasta: Elbow macaroni would be awesome in this pea salad.
• Throw in some tuna: For added protein!

Frequently Asked Questions

• Can I just add frozen peas? Even though this salad is served cold frozen peas would add too much moisture if left frozen in the salad.
• How to thaw frozen peas for salad? The easiest way to thaw frozen peas is to run them under warm water in a sieve or colander for 1 minute.
• How long can this be left out? Because this salad does have mayonnaise, sour cream and cheese I recommend only keeping it out at room temperature for no more than two hours. If you are bringing this to a potluck or making for a party I recommend placing the bowl over ice! My neighbors have some of these and they work great for keeping food cold!

What to serve with Pea Salad

• Grilled Chicken
• Steak Kabobs
• Instant Pot Barbecue Chicken
• Deviled Eggs
• Grilled Sweet Potatoes
• Potato Salad
• Macaroni Salad
• Homemade Burgers

More Side Dish Recipes To Try

• Tomato and Black Bean Quinoa Salad
• Japanese Cucumber Salad
• Quick Pickled Red Onions
• Grilled Vegetable Panzanella Salad
• Cucumber Avocado Salad