Sautéed Herbed Peas with Bacon

An easy to make spring vegetable side dish! These Sautéed Herbed Peas with Bacon come together in minutes and thanks to the bacon are a great way to get picky eaters to enjoy their veggies! 

What’s the one surefire way to get someone to eat or at least try a vegetable that may not be their favorite? Add bacon. My husband isn’t much of a vegetable eater, in fact it’s almost impossible to get him to eat some of them. Whenever I ask if he wants a salad with his dinner it’s, “no thanks” or if I make stir-fry and load it with veggies he’ll eat a few and then the rest are left on his plate looking sad and lonely because they were left behind. I’m sure many of you can relate whether it’s a husband, wife or a child that frustrates you to no end trying to get them to eat their vegetables.

There are a couple of vegetables my husband will tolerate and one of them is asparagus. Since asparagus is in season right now I’ve been loading up on it and taking full advantage of the fact that he will eat something green. Another way I’ve found that I can force get him to eat vegetables is by adding bacon to them. While bacon may not be the most healthy choice when it comes to meat, it is delicious and full of flavor. As long as you aren’t eating a pound of it a day and buy bacon that’s high quality and nitrate-free, I say why not occasionally add it do dinners, side dishes or salads.

In order to get my husband to eat another seasonal spring vegetable other than asparagus, the solution was clear, add the bacon! That’s exactly what I did with these Sautéed Herbed Peas with Bacon. This side dish is incredibly simple to make, full of that salty smokey bacon flavor along with fresh herbs and only uses 5 ingredients.

The Sautéed Herbed Peas with Bacon get an extra bacony kick to them because they are sautéed in the same pan that you cook the bacon in. Instead of completely cleaning out all of the bacon grease from the pan I left just enough to sauté the shallot and peas in. Once they were finished cooking I added the chopped bacon back in along with flat leaf parsley and tarragon. This side dish has sweetness from the peas, salty and smokey flavors from the bacon, freshness from the parsley and a slight anise flavor from the tarragon. This delicious spring vegetable side dish is hopefully one you can get your picky eaters to try, all thanks to a little bit of bacon!

Sautéed Herbed Peas with Bacon

Yield: 4-5 servings

Prep Time: 5 minutes

Cook Time: 10 minutes

Total Time: 15 minutes

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Ingredients

• 4 slices of bacon
• 1/4 cup minced shallot
• 10 ounces frozen peas, defrosted
• 1 tablespoon chopped flat leaf parsley
• 1 tablespoon chopped tarragon
• Kosher salt and fresh ground black pepper to taste

Instructions

1. Cook the bacon in a large sauté pan until crisp then remove from the pan and place onto a paper towel lined plate to drain.
2. Remove most of the excess bacon grease from the pan, leaving about 1-2 teaspoons worth.
3. Add in the minced shallot and sauté until softened, about 3-4 minutes.
4. Add in the peas and season with a little salt and pepper.
5. Sauté just until the peas are warmed through then add the bacon back in.
6. Remove the pan from the heat and stir in the parsley and tarragon.
7. Serve immediately.

Nutrition Information:

Yield: 4
Amount Per Serving: Calories: 1513.18 Total Fat: 44.47g Carbohydrates: 180.74g Protein: 73.93g

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