Blackeyed Pea Soup!

Happy New Year Mo! Did you know that I love blackeyed peas? My mother grew them in her garden in Texas and we spent many happy hours watching TV and shelling peas. Mom always picked the pods when they were young and the peas were still green. We ate them in the late summer and put them up in the freezer for the winter. If you have never had fresh blackeyed peas, it might come as a surprise that they are actually green. The frozen, dried or canned ones sold in most grocery stores are a sort of a pale, beigy color. Moreover, flavor-wise, they are a pale imitation of the fresh, home-grown variety of my youth. Nonetheless, it is a must to eat blackeyed peas at the beginning of each New Year for good luck and, as I have no better option, I use the grocery store, frozen ones. They can be doctored-up into a fairly good side dish such as Hoppin' John. This year, I improvised a soup which was quite tasty, the recipe for which follows so that, in the event you have not had your good luck blackeyed peas yet, you can give these a whirl. (Now, I know many people are not fond of blackeyed peas. In fact, I recall a children's song with the lyric "I'd rather eat boogers than blackeyed peas." Obviously, whoever wrote that song never had fresh blackeyed peas.) So without further adieu:

Blackeyed Pea Soup

• One bag of frozen blackeyed peas
• 1 cup of water
• 1 cup of chicken or vegetable stock
• 1/2 cup cubed, smoked ham (or as much as you like, a nice Kielbasa would also work)
• 1 tsp salt
• tons of fresh ground pepper
• chipotle flavored Tabasco sauce (as much as you like)
• 1 T cumin
• 1 t dried oregano
• 3-4 cloves garlic, chopped
• 1 1/2 cups of cooked broccoli rabe (I used some I had leftover from another meal)
• Olive oil for sauteing garlic

Bring water and broth to a boil and add peas. Bring back to a boil then lower heat and simmer, adding ham, salt, pepper, tobasco and other dry spices. Cook until tender, which takes about 20 minutes or so. Meanwhile, chop up and parboil the broccoli rabe until firm-tender, drain and dry off a bit. Heat 2-3 T of olive oil in separate saute pan and saute garlic for about 30 seconds, add broccoli rabe until tender but not mushy and add some salt and pepper. Use some of the liquid used to parboil the broccoli rabe, if necessary to keep it moist while sauteing.
Combine the tender broccoli rabe with the blackeyed peas and simmer for 10 minutes or so to marry the flavors. Adjust seasoning and add more hot sauce, if you like. Good with a little splash of apple cider vinegar. Better the next day. Good luck in the New Year!!

-Jo