You may know this as Texas caviar, but we’re from Louisiana and frankly most blackeyed peas will claim to be from there as well, so we’ve renamed it.  This is a great dip with corn chips, and you can toss any leftovers with torn romaine lettuce for one of the better salads you’ve ever tasted.

Your ingredients: three 16oz cans blackeyed peas; one bunch green onions; 1/2 bunch cilantro; 1/2 bunch parsley; a large tomato, diced or a can of Rotel; one red and one yellow bell pepper; two jalapenos; three cloves garlic; one tablespoon fresh oregano (or one teaspoon dried); 1/2 tablespoon hot sauce; one tablespoon Worcestershire sauce; one tablespoon black pepper; salt; two cups vinaigrette of your choice (we use 1-1/4 cups olive oil and 3/4 cup red wine vinegar).

Very finely chop the green onions, jalapeno, garlic and oregano.  I use this great little hand-cranked food processor.  Drain peas and toss in a large bowl with this seasoning mix.

Roughly chop and add the cilantro and parsley.  Mix vinaigrette, hot sauce, Worcestershire sauce, salt and pepper.  I like to mix it in the bowl of the food processor to get the rest of the seasoning vegetables involved.

Chop and add the bell peppers and tomato.  Stir all together and let marinate as long as you can stand it (it only gets better, but it’s also pretty damned  good right away).  Serve with corn chips.  See how good it is?  My brother can hardly contain himself, and even Eddy the dog is interested.

Again, because there’s so much vinaigrette, this makes a great salad — throw whatever is left over shredded lettuce and toss for a complete meal.