Texas Caviar

The wonderful and traditional black-eyed pea deserves at least one more featured recipe as we begin 2010. Those of us here in the South are quite familiar with the black-eyed pea salad know as "Texas caviar." Here's a version an officemate brought in to share last week. I like it a lot...the recipe adds great variety of flavor and texture by throwing in additional ingredients like corn and black olives. Yum.

Texas Caviar
Makes about 6 cups.

2 cans black-eyed peas, well-drained
1 can shoe peg corn, well-drained
2 cans chopped green chiles, well-drained
1 can yellow corn, well-drained
1 can black beans, well-drained
1/2 cup sliced black olives, well-drained
3 tomatoes, chopped
1 bunch green onions, chopped
1/2 tablespoon minced garlic
1 green bell pepper, diced
2 jalapenos, diced
1/2 cup fresh parsley, chopped
1 (16 ounce) bottle Italian dressing

Combine all ingredients in large bowl. Cover and refrigerate for several hours. Serve with tortilla chips. (Or my favorite...Fritos Scoops!)