As soon as the first warm, sunny day appears in spring, it’s time to break out one of my favorite, all-time recipes: Texas Caviar. This is a recipe that was passed to me by my best friend in college (coming from her mama, and other fine women before her), and has since been passed on to hundreds of friends and family members whom I’ve either served it to, or handed off the scribbled recipe to via email or scrap paper. I have never met an individual who hasn’t liked this simple, healthy ‘bean salsa’, and most people find it addictive… eating it and eating it until their bellies are full of black eyed peas and hominy. The recipe is simple and easy to adjust according to your likes/dislikes. A few things are necessary though: 1) Good tortilla chips; with a strong holding ability and nice amount of saltiness. 2) You must keep the black eyed peas and hominy. Their textures MAKE the salsa. Some folks like to add things like chickpeas or black beans, and I suppose that could make it tasty too.

Now, I’ve been making this recipe from memory for years… so sometimes I forget the exact quantities, but this should get you in the right arena. This makes a lot of caviar, enough to last for a medium sized party or to feed your family for a week. But don’t be scared, you usually will eat it all week long until every last drop is gone. Enjoy. Note: I try to use as much organic produce as possible. You can find organic canned black eyed peas and hominy and even organic salad dressing. If you want to add more work to your recipe, you can soak your own beans and make your own Italian dressing.

Texas Caviar
Ingredients

- 4 cans of black eyed peas
- 2 cans of white hominy
- 5 medium ripe tomatoes chopped in approx. quarter inch cubes (I like a lot of tomato so use your judgement)
- 3 cloves of garlic minced
- 1 green pepper, finely chopped
- 1/2-1 jalepeno seeded, and finely chopped
- 1 medium bunch of scallion chopped
- 1/2-1 bunch of cilantro finely chopped
- 1 large bottle of robust italian dressing
- generous dash of course sea salt and black pepper

Chop everything. Mix everything in a big bowl. Add the dressing, mix it up. Dip a chip in and taste this stuff. MMMMmmmmm.
Usually we can’t wait to eat it, so we spoon some out (use a slotted spoon) and eat it with tortilla chips. Technically you should let the mixture soak in the Italian dressing, then drain and serve chilled. Either way it is scrumptious. Also delicious in scrambled eggs, salads, or wraps and burritos.