This quick and easy Sweet Pea Salad Recipe with Scallion, Bacon, and Lemon Cream Dressing balances sweet, salty, and savory flavors for a beautiful spring side dish!
When I think of spring – as far as food goes – green peas immediately come to mind.
I think it’s because green peas are not only one of my favorite springtime foods, but also because they remind me of the green buds on trees.
And if you live in a place where it snows, you will know exactly what I mean when I say that buds on the trees in spring are a most welcome sight!
This Sweet Pea Salad showcases the natural sweetness of green peas. It’s balanced by the saltiness of bacon and the savory flavor of scallion. Instead of mayo, it’s dressed with a lemony whipped cream.
The result is a refreshing, flavorful salad that goes well with any number of main dishes!
Sweet Pea Salad Recipe
This Sweet Pea Salad is so easy to make it’s barely a recipe! But even though it has just a few ingredients, it’s not lacking flavor at all.
With a lot of my recipes, I say that it’s fine to go ahead and make the dish if you’re missing an ingredient or two. However, with this salad’s short ingredient list, each component brings an essential flavor to the mix.
Sweet Pea Salad Recipe Ingredients:
- Olive oil, to saute the turkey bacon
- Turkey bacon
- Frozen sweet green peas
- Scallion
- Parsley
- Salt and black pepper
Pea Salad Without Mayo
This salad is creamy, but there’s no mayo in sight!
The highlight of this Sweet Pea Salad is the lemon cream, which is used to dress the salad. It sounds so similar that you might not realize it’s not your typical creamy lemon salad dressing; no, this is something else entirely!
This is whipped cream flavored simply with lemon and a touch of sugar and salt for balance. It adds a surprisingly light feel, but at the same time richness to the dish. This airy dressing dissipates on your tongue, leaving you with a bit of richness that’s pleasantly contrasted by the lemon.
It’s the perfect way to simply dress Sweet Pea Salad!
Do You Serve This Salad Cold?
Yes! This is a chilled pea salad.
What to Serve with This Sweet Pea Salad:
- Spicy Honey Citrus Chicken
- Best Baked Cod
- Gluten Free Healthy Baked Chicken Tenders
- Lemon Butter Garlic Salmon
- Instant Pot BBQ Chicken
Did you make this recipe? Please rate it and leave a comment below because I love hearing from you! You can also tag @anediblemosaic on social media. To stay up-to-date FOLLOW ME on Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook. Xoxo, Faith
Sweet Pea Salad Recipe with Scallion, Bacon, and Lemon Cream Dressing
Ingredients
Salad:
- 1 1/2 tablespoons olive oil
- 6 slices turkey bacon chopped
- 10 ounces frozen sweet green peas not thawed
- 3 scallions green and white parts, thinly sliced
- 1/2 cup flat-leaf parsley leaves pulled from the stems
- 1/8 teaspoon salt
- 1/8 teaspoon black pepper
Lemon Cream Dressing:
Instructions
- Heat the oil in a medium skillet over medium-high heat. Add the bacon and fry until crispy, about 4 to 5 minutes, stirring occasionally. Transfer the bacon to a paper towel-lined plate to cool and drain off the excess oil.
- Fill a medium saucepan half-full with water and bring it to a rolling boil. Add a generous sprinkling of salt. Stir in the frozen peas and time them for 45 seconds. Strain the peas and let them cool.
- Combine the bacon, peas, scallion, parsley leaves, and a pinch of salt and pepper in a large bowl, and then pour it onto a serving dish. Chill until serving.
- For the dressing, whip the cream until thickened enough so that when you spoon a dollop, it stays without spreading out too much. Whisk in the lemon juice, lemon zest, sugar, and salt.
- Right before serving, dollop the Lemon Cream Dressing onto the salad.
Helpful Tips
Nutrition
This post was first published on An Edible Mosaic on May 16, 2014. I updated it with more information on April 15, 2021.
Disclosure: This post contains Amazon affiliate links to products I believe in, which means that even though it doesn’t cost you anything extra, I will receive a small amount of money from the sale of these items. Thank you for helping to support An Edible Mosaic!
I’m Faith Gorsky, the writer, cook, and photographer behind An Edible Mosaic. My goal is to inspire you to get in the kitchen and try something new! Feel free to 
I haven’t had nearly enough peas this spring! I love everything you have going on in this salad. Scallions and parsley? Plus the bacon? My eyeballs are liking what they see!!
mmmmmmmmmmmm! Just delicious!!! Peas in the spring are amazing. Sorry I haven’t been commenting much- we went away for a few days :)
Spring on a plate! This dish is fabulous.
Cheers,
Rosa