Old Fashioned Pea Salad: This simple pea salad (often known as an English pea salad) is light, fresh, and the perfect side dish! Peas, crispy bacon, sharp cheddar cheese, and onion are topped with creamy mayo and sour cream dressing to create this classic salad recipe.
More old-fashioned favorites? Fry up some Old-Fashioned Salmon Patties for a tasty lunch or make a good old tuna noodle casserole for supper.
Why You’ll Love This Recipe
Easy cold salads like this easy red skin potato salad and crab salad recipe, have stood the test of time for a good reason – they are so simple to make!
This easy pea salad recipe makes one seriously delicious salad; the peas add a slight crunch, the creamy dressing make the salad very light and fresh, the bacon and cheese make it hearty and filling. It’s perfect for your next potluck, summer barbecue, baby showers, or as a simple side dish for your next dinner party.
Most pea salad recipes have some bacon and cheese in them, but you’ll find that this recipe has a generous dose of both…because we like bacon and cheese around here.
But the best part of green pea salads? You can make them however you want! This salad is super easy to adapt to fit your lifestyle and diet – just one of the many reasons we love it. See the substitutions and variations section for a few ideas I had.
Safety Tip
If you are bringing this old-fashioned pea salad to a potluck, serve in a temp-controlled container due to the dairy-based dressing (i.e. set your salad bowl in another bowl that has some ice in the bottom to help keep the salad chilled).
Jump to:
Ingredients
The ingredients for this green pea salad are as simple as can be. You probably have most of these on hand already!
- ¼ cup mayonnaise
- ¼ cup sour cream
- 1 tablespoon apple cider vinegar
- 1 tablespoon sugar
- ½ teaspoon salt
- ¼ teaspoon ground black pepper
- 2 – 10 ounce bags frozen peas (about 4-6 cups) – thawed halfway
- 1 cup cooked bacon, chopped
- 1 cup cheddar cheese, cubed
- ½ cup red onion, finely chopped
- Optional: fresh parsley for garnish
See the printable recipe card below for a list of the ingredients and step-by-step instructions!
Instructions for this easy pea salad recipe
** To thaw peas, I like to set them out in a small bowl while I am cooking the bacon and prepping the cheese and onion. Prep time for these steps takes about 15 minutes and that is usually enough time for the peas to be “halfway thawed”.
- In a large mixing bowl, whisk together the mayonnaise, sour cream, apple cider vinegar, sugar, salt and pepper until well combined.
- Add the green peas, cheese, and red onion and toss in the prepared dressing until well combined.
- Top with chopped fresh parsley (if desired) and serve salad chilled. You can serve this right away, but if you have a chance to let it chill in the fridge for a couple of hours the flavor will be even better.
Substitutions & Variations
Cold salads like this are so fun to make because they are SO easy to adapt and play around with. You can get creative with this salad and make it your own! Here are a few substitution + variation ideas I had:
- Make this cold pea salad dairy-free by substituting the mayo, sour cream and cheese with your favorite dairy alternative.
- Swap out the bacon for leftover ham for a fun twist (a great way to use up leftovers, too).
- Instead of red onion, you can use chopped green onions in this recipe. Green onion has a bit of a milder flavor, so this is perfect if you don’t want a super strong onion flavor in your salad.
- Omit meat completely to make it vegetarian.
- Try some fun add-ins like: hard boiled eggs, fresh herbs, chopped green bell pepper, a pinch of paprika or cayenne for some spice.
- You can use fresh peas for this. Just steam them and cool them in the fridge, first. DO NOT use canned peas for this recipe. They are too soft and your salad will become a mushy bowl of goo.
Storage
You can make this simple peas salad recipe ahead of time, which is super convenient. Just cover it in plastic wrap and store it in the fridge to serve later that day or even the next day.
Store any leftover creamy pea salad for up to 3 days in an airtight container in the fridge. Do not freeze.
Expert Tips and FAQs
You sure can! That’s one of the best things about pea salad; it’s totally flexible. Adding chopped hard boiled eggs to this salad is a fun way to up the protein a bit.
Frozen peas are flash-steamed before they are frozen, so really all you need to do is warm them up. For this recipe, we let them thaw at room temperature (but not all the way, only about half) so that the peas don’t get mushy while you are mixing the salad.
This classic pea salad is great to pair with bbq foods for a summer backyard get together, but it’s also well suited as a hearty side dish for a comfort food meal in the cooler months. Try serving this as a side dish with this Instant Pot lemon and herb chicken for a quick and delicious dinner!
Did you make this? I’d be so grateful if you left a “star” rating below to let me know what you thought! Then, the next time you need a quick and easy recipe, come back to Fantabulosity to browse all of my easy recipes!
Related Recipes
If you loved this old fashioned pea salad and you’re looking for more classic recipes, then I bet you’ll love this easy broccoli salad (it has raisins and bacon in it, need I say more? ).
Then, use any leftover peas in the easy chicken pot pie recipe!
Recipe
Old Fashioned Pea Salad
Ingredients
- ¼ cup mayonnaise
- ¼ cup sour cream
- 1 tablespoon apple cider vinegar
- 1 tablespoon sugar
- ½ teaspoon salt
- ¼ teaspoon ground black pepper
- 2 – 10 ounce bags frozen peas (about 4-6 cups) – thawed halfway
- 1 cup cooked bacon chopped
- 1 cup cheddar cheese cubed
- ½ cup red onion finely chopped
- Optional: fresh parsley for garnish
Instructions
- ** To thaw peas, I like to set them out while I am cooking the bacon and prepping the cheese and onion. Prep time for these steps takes about 15 minutes and that is usually enough time for the peas to be “halfway thawed”.
- In a large bowl, whisk together the mayonnaise, sour cream, apple cider vinegar, sugar, salt and pepper until well combined.
- Add the green peas, cheese and red onion and toss in the prepared dressing until well combined.
- Top with chopped fresh parsley if desired and serve salad chilled. You can serve this right away, but if you have a chance to let it chill in the fridge for a couple of hours the flavor will be even better.
Notes
Nutrition
Nutritional information is based on third-party calculations and should be considered estimates. Actual nutritional content will vary with brands used, measuring methods, portion sizes and more.
Deb says
100 ounces of peas? That seems like a lot! Is this correct?
Jessica says
Hi Deb! Thank you SO much for catching that! No, it’s supposed to be 2, 10 oz. bags. 🙂 So sorry about that. The zero and the “O” of the “ounces” sure blended together there but I’ve fixed it to make it more clear. 🙂 Thanks again!
Anna says
This salad was a huge hit in our house! The dressing is so creamy and delicious. Thank you for sharing!
Agnes says
This looks amazing! I feel like we don’t eat enough peas, and this looks like a fantastic way to incorporate them more into our meals!
Kristyn says
I grew up not liking peas, but I have come to love this salad!! It’s one of my favorites!! So much delicious flavor & makes the perfect side dish to so many things!