Are you suffering?

With too many summer vegetables piling up, or looking for that perfect veggie forward side dish that you can just take to any gathering this summer?

Well this succotash recipe is just what your table needs.

I'm Trace Barnett, and welcome to Garden Party.

Today is all about succotash.

And the star of this dish is the fresh pink-eyed purple hull peas straight from my garden.

They're super beautiful.

They're the perfect pea.

They have a little bit of sweetness.

They're easy to shell.

They're large in size, super vibrant.

And they have a really good flavor.

They're the perfect foundation for our succotash.

To get started, I have taken two cups of peas and I have cooked those down just how you would traditionally cook peas threw a little bit of pork fat in there cooked them on the stove over medium high heat just until they're tender.

And I didn't overly salt them, just a tiny bit of salt just because we're going to be adding all of our flavors into our succotash.

So we just don't want to start off on a big old salt block of peas I've taken four slices of bacon and I have browned them in a pan and just crumbled them.

I've also retained our bacon grease.

This is super important.

Bacon grease and tablespoon of butter.

Now this bacon grease is going to really char up our corn really nicely.

And it's going to give us a really pretty color on our onions and our celery and bring a little heat out in our peppers.

So just add a cup of onion.

Little Vidalia onion there.

I'm going to go ahead and throw my tomatoes in there too just get them a little little char.

Throw in some jalapeno peppers.

I have a mix of banana pepper and also jalapeno Again, this is a recipe that's so easy to substitute your taste preference to.

And of course, if you don't have any peppers on hand, you can always use a jar of pimentos.

Now I'm a celery fan, so I'm going to add in just about a cup of celery.

I really like that crunch and I also like the color.

Last but not least, I'm going to add in a heaping.

I added a little bit more just because I'm a real corn fan.

So corn directly into our pot.

I'm going to take that over to our stove, and I'm just going to cook this just until the corn starts to brown a little bit and the onions just soften slightly.

So around 8 to 10 minutes.

See you at the stove.

Essentially succotash, which is a Native American dish.

The components can be anything you want, but a traditional succotash is usually bean based.

So a lima bean, any kind of great summer bean.

But I love the peas.

And this is a great way to utilize.

I'm using pink eyed purple hull peas today which are really sweet.

They're juicy, they're easy to peel, easy to grow, and I really think it's a way to kind of rethink about peas, as opposed to this mushy side dish that's cooked forever.

They, you know, they're really too pretty to cook down like that.

So succotash is basically a fancy pea salad or bean salad.

And it's super simple.

It's one of those dishes that's super versatile.

And it's also super beautiful as a side.

And, you know, it can almost be the only side you have at a cookout.

You know, it pairs perfectly with a barbecue and a chip and full of flavor.

All right.

We are hot off the stove and it's smelling just like MawMaws house in here.

Bacon frying, corn sizzling the best of smells It's just like a rainbow.

A kaleidoscope of summer vegetables, if there ever was such a thing.

So before we add our vegetables in there, I'm going to make up just a little bit of a sauce that's just going to grab everything together.

So I have a few tablespoons here of sherry vinegar or red wine vinegar.

Whatever you have on hand.

Both are interchangeable.

You can use white wine vinegar just don't use a balsamic because it makes it a little dark.

I'm gonna add in just a tiny pinch of sugar just for that little bit of sweetness.

So this is one of a very standard dressing for a vegetable salad if you've ever made one before.

I'm going to put some garlic powder in there.

I'm a real garlic powder person.

So I'm gonna put a lot Give that a stir and be sure and do this in a separate bowl, just to be sure that you kind of get all of your sugar dissolved directly into that vinegar.

So I'm gonna pour that in there into our peas, and I'm just going to season it with a little salt and pepper.

This again, is why we didn't really overly season our peas in the beginning.

We just wanted them to have just a tiny bit of flavor.

Now I also want to add here we're really trying to keep the tack of those vegetables when you're eating them.

So you know the real feel of the vegetable.

So I haven't cooked these peas too mush and I didn't cook these too mush either.

Just a little bit of cooking just so they're not crunchy.

Now let's add our beautiful vegetables to our peas.

So I'm going to stir our vegetables in As you can see it's just turning into this really pretty vibrant dish.

I love all the colors as they kind of marry together.

And it smells really good too.

So this recipe is super easy and you can interchange any kind of vegetables you have at your farmer's market or in your garden, or just at your disposal in general.

Some great things to substitute here would be a jar of pimentos for fresh peppers.

Super easy.

Throws that red directly in there.

Another thing is herbs.

Of course you can add any kind of summer herb, today we're going to be adding parsley, basil and a little thyme So of course you can add or omit any of those herbs as well.

I like a little bit of heat, so I threw in some fresh jalapeno today.

But of course bell peppers of any color, any variety would work perfect in here too.

I'm going to throw in the juice of one lime.

This is also a great time to talk about how you can throw in cilantro and lime, so you could throw in elote corn seasoning so you could really flavor profile this to whatever mood you are in I'm gonna throw in a big heaping handful of herbs.

I'm gonna give that one final good stir.

Let's finish it off with just a little bit of chopped vegetables and some crumbled bacon.

Save your bacon 'til the end and just top it and As people serve themselves up Dig around in this succotash.

It's going to get mixed around perfectly, and you have yourself a super versatile, easy breezy throw it together.

Everyone's going to love it.

It's going to be a hit.

And now I'm starving.

Just from seeing this, I think we need a little bit more sauce on that chicken Oh yeah, now we're talking Let's have us a little taste test here, I never have a utensil.

Mmm, this succotash has everything you want.

Good veggie flavor, good crunch from the bacon.

And the herbs really translate through a very bright airy summer dish.

Now that's a succotash that nobody will be suffering through.

Happy summer succotashin' And you know where to find me.

I'll be buried in this bacon succotash.

Are you drowning in summer vegetables.

Well, I have the I just went right into that.

That's cute I hear that fly buzzing around me.

So if you see him, let me know.

I almost said four cloves of bacon.

I have left my spoon over here.

Spoon!

Gotta laugh a minute after that because I didn't know that.

Woo!

Wow.

That's scary.

A little bit of good smoky, flat favor Can't even talk.

It's so good.

I'm gonna chew first