Anyone who has ever tried to feed a small child knows that their tastes can be unpredictable, particularly when it comes to vegetables. It is a myth that young children hate all vegetables — the problem is that you never know which vegetable they will like on any given day. Nuni will happily munch on florets of raw broccoli (she saw it on Sesame Street), but will turn up her nose at the cooked stuff, even if it’s slathered in cheese, even though she LOVES cheese. She’ll eat a carrot, but only if the top is still attached, and she likes to squeeze all the insides from grape tomatoes without actually tasting them. In short, I never know how she’ll approach a vegetable, unless that vegetable is a pea.
I don’t know what it is about peas – maybe it’s the sweet flavor, the diminuitive size, or the bright color – but they seem to be particularly appealing to children. This salad, which I adapted from my favorite but now sadly defunct parenting magazine, Wondertime, is a great use of peas that appeals to children and adults alike. The natural sweetness of peas is a perfect foil to smoky, crunchy bacon, savory nuts and sharp onion.
