Caribbean Pigeon Pea Salad with Brown Rice

Sunday night's dinner unexpectedly took me 3 hours to make (homemade grilled arugula pizza and Mediterranean chopped salad) and ended in the kitchen looking like a bomb had occurred, so this week I decided to be a tad less industrious in my cooking.

For dinner growing up, my mother often "whomped" things together to create some delicious concoction. Once she whomped together an african-style coconut curry with pigeon peas. I think that was about 10 years ago, and ever since, I've wanted to cook with pigeon peas.

This weekend at Barnes and Noble I bought The Tropical Vegan Kitchen by Donna Klein. It's hotter than the hinges of hades here in the August Florida heat, so I've been wanting lighter dishes that whip up fast. I flipped through The Vegan Mediterranean Kitchen and found an easy dozen or so recipes that I want to try, one of them being the Caribbean Pigeon Pea Salad with Brown Rice.

Here's the recipe, which is modified to fit what I had in my fridge :)


Caribbean Pigeon Pea Salad with Brown Rice (modified from The Tropical Vegan Kitchen, Donna Klein)

1 can pigeon peas, drained and rinsed
1 1/2 cups uncooked brown rice, cooked according to directions, with 1/2 Tablespoon garlic salt and some fresh or dried thyme added to the water.
1 Tablespoon Jerk seasoning (I didn't have any, so had to make some of my own)
2 stalks celery, diced
2 cloves garlic, minced
2 cups grape tomatoes, halved
1/4 cup olive oil
1/4 cup fresh lemon juice
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 Tbs sugar
1 tsp dried thyme


Directions:

1. Set cooked rice aside to cool

2. Meanwhile, combine lemon juice, oil, thyme, garlic, salt, jerk seasoning, and sugar in large bowl.

3. Add peas, tomatoes and celery and mix to coat. Set aside for flavors to blend for 10-15 minutes.

4. Combine peas with rice and mix to fluff. Serve warm or at room temperature.

The verdict: Delicious! Everyone wants this again, and it was such a relief to only be in the kitchen for about a half hour. Half hour recipes are sounding great right about now! This recipe would also be great with other veggies added: the original recipe calls for chopped bell peppers and scallions.