This redux of an Up North classic may inspire you to tinker this growing season.
This article first appeared in Traverse Northern Michigan. Find this story and more when you explore our magazine library. Want Traverse delivered to your door or inbox monthly? View our print subscription and digital subscription options.
Before we moved to Northern Michigan full time, during the decades when we were still vacationers or summer people, there were certain iconic dishes that reminded me I was home. Peas ‘n’ Peanuts was one such staple. Whether I grabbed a tub of the Sisson’s recipe from “the Merc” for lunch on the go, ladled a scoop onto my plate from the riverside salad bar at the Bluebird or spotted the dish on the potluck table at an annual seasonal opener, this is one side that seems to show up abundantly in and around our hometown of Leland. In fact, the scooped slurry of peanuts and peas tossed in sweet mayonnaise is at once so Midwestern and so stuck in time that if someone blind-folded me, teleported me and served me a spoonful with my eyes closed, I would know without a doubt that I was Up North.
From salt-packing lake trout to make local lox, to refreshing the miner’s pasty with a colorful array of root veggies, this column has been about taking ingredients and dishes that are unique to this region and rethinking them. I can’t wait to welcome another growing season by making this reinterpretation of a classic.
In this redux, June peas are served four ways. Whole peas are puréed into a bright green schmear for each plate, a tangle of seasonal tendrils is set atop, sweet snap peas have been sliced on the bias to provide crunch, and edible pea or chive blossoms give the whole plate a touch of floral whimsy. For this salad, crushed peanuts are sprinkled on top, akin to croutons or breadcrumbs. The sour cream and mayonnaise are still there—albeit as a lighter, salad-dressing version of themselves.
I know change can be hard, especially when there’s a classic involved. But change can also be beautiful if we give it a chance.
Pea(shoot)s ‘N’ Peanuts
Serves 6 as a salad course
2 Tablespoons buttermilk
1 Tablespoon sour cream
1 Tablespoon mayonnaise
1 Tablespoon plus 1 teaspoon freshly squeezed lemon juice, divided
1 Tablespoon minced chives
1 10-ounce bag frozen green peas, thawed
2 Tablespoons olive oil
6 fistfuls of fresh pea shoots, about 4 ounces, rinsed and dried
1 cup, about 3 ounces, sugar snap peas, sliced on the bias
1⁄3 cup cocktail peanuts, broken into pieces in a mortar and pestle salt to taste
edible pea or chive blossoms, optional
1. In a large bowl, whisk together buttermilk, sour cream, mayonnaise and 1 teaspoon of lemon juice until fully incorporated. Fold in chives and set aside.
2. Place thawed green peas and 1 Tablespoon lemon juice in a food processor and turn on. While the blade spins, slowly drizzle in the olive oil and a few pinches of salt to taste. Purée until the mixture is the consistency of hummus, but still chunky enough to know that it started from peas. Divide the pea purée evenly between six salad plates, placing a heaping spoonful on one side of the plate. Drag the back of the spoon through each scoop to create a brushstroke of the puree across all six plates.
3. Place pea shoots in the bowl with the buttermilk dressing and use a spatula to gently toss the greens until evenly coated. Using your fingers, place a heap of greens on top of each schmear of pea purée. Top the greens with sliced snap peas and crushed peanuts. Garnish with pea or chive blossoms and serve, encouraging guests to make a big ol’ mess of their plates by dragging all the flavors through each other before every bite.
NOTE: Flowers from wild sweet pea plants, which cascade down hillsides so abundantly in this region, are toxic. When garnishing this salad with pea blossoms, be sure to use the flowers of edible, vegetable-garden pea plants.
