Black Eyed Pea Cake with Warm Bacon Salsa on the Blackstone Griddle

These flavors ya'll. They rocked. Never thought this would have turned out as well as it did. Hope you guys try this one! Recipe below. Also, I'm sorry for my dog's behavior 😳

Black-Eyed Pea Cakes with Warm Bacon and Black-Eyed Pea Salsa
Ingredients
• 24-30 oz of black-eyed peas (or two cans of 15oz seasoned type). Save ½ cup for your salsa
• 1-2 green onions, chopped (you can use yellow/white onion too, I thought green onions would give a nice flavor).
• 1 – 1.5 cups panko (depending on how wet your mixture is)
• 2 eggs
• ¼ teaspoon red pepper flake
• ½ - 1 teaspoon salt
• ½ - 1 teaspoon pepper
• 3 tablespoons oil (canola, veggie, etc) – For frying
Warm Bacon and Black-Eyed Pea Salsa
• ½ cup of reserved black-eyed peas
• ½ cup cherry tomatoes
• ½ cup red onion
• ½ cup red pepper
• 1 slice of bacon cut into small cubes.
• 1-2 tablespoons apple cider vinegar (can use red wine, sherry wine, rice wine, or white)
• 2-3 tablespoons cilantro
• Salt to taste
• Pepper to taste
Instructions
1. Process peas in a food processer. Remember to save ½ cup for the salsa.
2. Place processed peas into a bowl and add bread crumbs (recommend ½ cup at a time to ensure you don’t over add), eggs, red pepper flake, green onions, salt, and pepper.
3. Mix everything together well.
4. Form mixture into patties (don’t make them too high). Place on a baking sheet and refrigerate for at least 1 hour (though I skipped this part, I do recommend this).
5. Heat Blackstone on a med-high heat and add frying oil of choice. Make sure oil is heated nicely, and add your cakes.
6. When the cakes are almost done (after the first flip), add the bacon, and render the fat until bacon is somewhat crispy. Add the peas, tomatoes, onions, pepper, salt, pepper, and crushed red pepper. Warm through and incorporated.
7. Remove the patties and place the salsa in a bowl.
8. Add vinegar and cilantro to the salsa bowl.
9. Plate the patties then the salsa on top and enjoy!