New Years Black-Eyed Pea Salad

Hey everyone!

Sorry for the long holiday hiatus! Just before Thanksgiving we got the news that we are taking a team to Greece and then we had the holidays, a death in the family, and a lot of things got crazy! But now I'm back and I have an awesome vegetarian treatment for your New Year's "lucky" black-eyed peas.

I'm generally not one to follow such traditions, but I am one to base a weekly menu around whats on sale... and black-eyed peas are on the menu. I thought this recipe would be pretty good... but I was shocked when I sampled it and I tasted BACON. I kid you not, it tastes like there's at least a 1/2 lb. of bacon in this salad!.

note: this bowl was filled to the brim when I started "tasting" it.  :)

Below is the recipe with my notes in parentheses, followed by the link to the original recipe as it appears at Allrecipes.com.

Ingredients

• 1 cup dehydrated sun-dried tomatoes
• 2 (15 ounce) cans black-eyed peas, drained
• 1/2 small red onion, chopped
• 1 small green bell pepper, chopped
• 1 (6 ounce) package crumbled feta cheese
• 1/3 cup olive oil
• 1/4 cup balsamic vinegar (I used red wine vinegar)
• 1 tablespoon Dijon mustard
• 1 tablespoon honey

Directions

1. Place sun-dried tomatoes in a small bowl with enough boiling water to cover. Allow to sit 3 minutes, or until softened. Drain, and cut into strips.(mine were already moist enough and I was able to skip this step)
2. In a medium bowl, mix the sun-dried tomatoes, black-eyed peas, onion, bell pepper, and feta.
3. In a separate bowl, whisk together olive oil, balsamic vinegar, Dijon mustard, and honey. Drizzle over the salad, and gently toss to coat. Refrigerate 1 hour before serving.

http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Black-Eyed-Pea-Salad-II/Detail.aspx