Redneck Caviar

Redneck Caviar is a Southern Dip and Side Dish made with fresh vegetables & a delicious vinegar dressing. Black-Eyed Peas & Black Beans are tossed with fresh summer tomatoes, peppers, and corn, and you won’t be able to resist scooping a chip in this dip!

Redneck Caviar is a fun southern side dish that goes by many names – Carolina Caviar, Hillbilly Caviar, Cowboy Caviar, Georgia Caviar, Texas Caviar, and sometimes even Black-Eyed Pea Relish. I often just refer to it as that Black-Eyed Pea Salad. Whatever you call it, it’s delicious. It is a really colorful salad/dip fusion that can be eaten as an appetizer with chips or as a side dish with fried fish, grilled steak, or burgers in the summer. It’s a great dish to bring to a party because it serves a lot of people and it can sit out for a while without spoiling.

In true redneck fashion, when we make this side dish we tend to use whatever we have to create a delicious dish. Sometimes I use canned beans – sometimes I cook dried beans in the Instant Pot and use those. Sometimes I use fresh lime juice, sometimes I use the stuff in the bottle. Sometimes we roast corn on the cob – sometimes we use corn kernels in the can. It comes out great every time.

I love making cowboy caviar in the summertime because we always have so many different kinds of fresh tomatoes, peppers, herbs, and corn just begging to be used. Sometimes I even roast some squash and throw it in. I always plant way too many cherry tomato plants, so this is a great way to use a lot of the tomatoes.

Table of Contents

• 🥘 Ingredients
• 🍽 Equipment Needed
• 🥣 How to Make It
• 🍱 Recipe Yield
• 🙋‍♀️ Frequently Asked Questions
• How to Store It
• ✏️ Helpful Tips
• Substitutions & Variations
• What to Serve on the Side
• 📝 Recipe

🥘 Ingredients

• Olive Oil
• Red Wine Vinegar – If you don’t have red wine vinegar, you can use white wine vinegar or apple cider vinegar.
• Chili Powder
• Cumin
• Juice of one lime
• Kosher Salt
• Jalapeño Pepper
• Tomatoes – I use whatever we have, cherry tomatoes, sun gold tomatoes, Roma tomatoes, etc
• Canned Sweet Corn – You can use canned corn, frozen corn, or fresh corn that is cooked and cut off the cobs. Roasted or grilled corn adds a nice layer of flavor to this dip, just let it cool before cutting it up.
• Canned Black-Eyed Peas – If you don’t have canned beans, you can use freshly cooked dried beans. Use 1 cup of dried beans which will give you 1.5 – 2 cups of cooked beans.
• Canned Black Beans – If you don’t have canned beans, you can use freshly cooked dried beans. Use 1 cup of dried beans which will give you 1.5 – 2 cups of cooked beans.
• Red Onion – We don’t love the taste of raw onion, so we use about half of a small red onion. You can use more if you like the taste of raw onion more than we do.
• Red Bell Pepper
• Fresh Cilantro

For Serving

• Chips – This caviar dip is best served with chips that are shaped like scoops so that they can scoop up all of the beans and the delicious juices. It is delicious with corn chips like Frito Scoops or Tostitos Scoops Tortilla Chips.

🍽 Equipment Needed

All you will need here is a knife & cutting board to chop your veggies, a big bowl to mix everything up, and a few measuring spoons and cups. This recipe is so easy to make!

🥣 How to Make It

1. In a large bowl, mix the olive oil, red wine vinegar, chili powder, cumin, lime juice, and kosher salt together.
2. Add the tomatoes, black-eyed peas, beans, corn, red onion, bell peppers, jalapeño pepper, and cilantro, and toss everything gently to combine.
3. Give a quick taste and adjust the salt – you might need to add more – then cover and chill for at least one hour.
4. Serve the caviar with your favorite tortilla chips, as a side dish, or on top of fish, steak, or chicken.

BUT – if you want to be totally lazy like me, you can just mix it all together, you will just have to stir a little more, so just try your best not to stir too hard because you can accidentally squish the beans! I put the corn, beans, and veggies, then stir – then add oil, vinegar, spices, lime, then cilantro – and stir it all. (This easy method is pictured below!)

It looks perfect!

🍱 Recipe Yield

This redneck caviar recipe will serve 10 – 12 people and can easily be doubled or tripled. Serve with chips!

🙋‍♀️ Frequently Asked Questions

How to Store It

Store your Redneck/Cowboy Caviar in the fridge in an airtight container. It will keep for about 5 days. To freshen it up before serving, you can sprinkle it with a pinch of salt and a squeeze of fresh lime.

✏️ Helpful Tips

• Mix up the Redneck/Cowboy Caviar as far ahead of time as you can – at least 3 hours if possible – to allow the flavors to really develop. 
• Serve this dip with your favorite tortilla chips – it works best with chips that have a scoop so you can get some of the juice in each scoop.
• Redneck Caviar will keep in an airtight container in the refrigerator for about 5 days.

Substitutions & Variations

• We like to take “redneck” seriously and use what we have – leftover random halves of bell peppers, any kinds of tomatoes, jalapeños, leftover corn – you can really get creative with the ingredients in Cowboy Caviar  – just keep the dressing the same.  
• If you don’t like the taste of raw red onions, you can substitute green onions. Their taste is not as strong.
• If you like your cowboy caviar to be on the sweet side, you can add sugar – start with a teaspoon and increase until it is your desired sweetness. We think it is really great as is!
• If you don’t like black-eyed peas, you can substitute pinto beans or double up the black beans.
• You can also make this dish without cilantro if you are one of those people that have the unfortunate curse of cilantro tasting like soap.
• If you don’t have fresh tomatoes, you can use canned Rotel Tomatoes with Green Chilies – though it will alter the flavor quite a bit. (There are variations of this dish that use Rotel and Zesty Italian Salad Dressing. We prefer the version with more fresh ingredients.)

What to Serve on the Side

We like to serve cowboy caviar with a simple protein. It is so flavorful that it goes with so many things:

• Fried Catfish
• Grilled Burgers
• Grilled Steak
• Fried Shrimp

Have You Tried This Recipe?
Please rate it and leave a comment below. I would love to hear what you think!

📝 Recipe