spicy black eyed pea soup

(1 rating)
Recipe by
Mary Merth
Houston, TX

Finally got out the dry black eyed peas my daughter got from her Organic farm coop she belongs to.Shame on me I have had these for 6 months waiting to be cooked, sometimes I am guilty of procrastination. This morning I got up to do my study and never got to it, was too distracted thinking about cooking those black eyed peas. When I bake a ham after the first day my husband or I slice up the meat to be used in sandwiches, omelets, split pea soup, Mom's pinto beans and other dishes leave some ham on the bone slip it into a Ziploc, seal and freeze for a later date I suggest waiting to make this till you have one. So now there's a ham bone on the counter in the bag, another bag with dry black eyed peas waiting with a colander sitting there as I stood there thinking I was just going to make a batch of regular black eyed peas, my creative juices began working...Hmm, could I make a soup out of this and stretch the groceries this week some more? It's cool enough for soup it's in the mid 70's to upper 60's here in sunny Florida that qualifies for a cool spell right? So I flew to the computer to begin searching for black eyed pea soup and YES!! Found numerous recipes to look through. As I searched my brain was working on zip drive so I closed the cooking site pages. I can use beef broth, I can add some celery, carrots, RED potatoes (I love the red ones), onion. I was on a roll I opened up my computer to my recipe notebook section as my fingers began flying across the screen as I thought of different spices, veggies, jumping up now and then to check if I had the ingredient I was jotting down, okay out of that, ohhh I can add that. Quickly I went through the dry black eyed peas, removing the dirt and little sticks dropping the black eyed peas in the colander to rinse then put them in the stock pot with 2-3 inches of water on top turned the burn on high till they came to a vigorous boil then down to medium high set the timer for 10 minutes. Next in another pot I put the ham bone, pieces of ham and 2 cups of chicken broth and added water till the pan was half full brought it to a boil, then turned it down to medium low to simmer for stock later. When the timer went off I turned off the burner and let them sit. Now I was back at the computer finishing up the ingredients list and typing up my directions. In the midst of typing mentally armed and ready to start this new dish, my hubby came in and said babe, it's 2:30pm have you eaten today? No....so I mentioned the leftover salad, could he dice up some ham slices, chicken slices and get out the 5 Italian cheese that I would be right there as I was finishing typing. Knowing me he went ahead and cut up the meat, got the bowls out and dished us up. He was wondering when I was going to start dinner the meatloaf..right? No! I said I am creating a new soup babe! Thankfully he had chopped onion ahead so as soon as I finished the salad I got started with my loving prep cook (my husband) near by chopping as we went. As this dish cooked the smells were so tantalizing it was hard to wait those 3 and a half hours for it to finish cooking. My husband Dave made us some Cornbread to go with it right before serving. Delicious tasty meal. Great for cool weather or New Years, enjoy!

(1 rating)
yield 6 -8 people
cook time 4 Hr

Ingredients For spicy black eyed pea soup

  • 1 lb
    dried black eyed peas
  • 1 can
    del montes tomatoes and green chilis 15 oz
  • 1 md
    purple onion diced
  • 3
    celery stalks sliced 1/2 inch
  • 5 md
    red potatoes washed and cubed largely
  • 1/2 pkg
    baby carrots chopped 1/2 inch
  • 1
    hambone with some ham on it making 4 cups stock
  • 1 1/2 Tbsp
    cilantro fresh washed and diced
  • 1 1/2 tsp
    basil fresh washed and diced
  • 2 tsp
    garlic powder
  • 1/2 tsp
    black pepper
  • 1/2 tsp
    cumin
  • 1/2 tsp
    chili powder
  • 1/4 tsp
    crushed red peppers
  • 2
    bay leaves fresh or dry
  • 32 oz
    beef broth
  • 2 c
    chicken broth
  • 1 dash
    worcestershire sauce
  • 1 dash
    louisiana hot sauce or tabasco
  • 1 tsp
    fresh squeezed lime
  • 1/2 tsp
    seasoning salt

How To Make spicy black eyed pea soup

  • 1
    Sort through your dry beans picking out any rocks, funky ones, split ones, or debris put the beans to cook in your colander and rinse thoroughly with water till the water runs clean. In a 8 qt stock pot place your washed black eyed peas and cover with water about 2 to 3 inches of water bring to a boil for 10 minutes then turn off burner and let sit for about 45 minutes then rinse and drain.
  • 2
    In a separate pot add 2 cups chicken broth, and water to cover your leftover ham bone with meat about 3+ inches above the bone. Bring this to a boil lower heat to a simmer for about an hour cooking it down a little for using later, leave on low heat till time to use. Put the black eyed peas back in the 8 qt stock pot with 32 oz of Beef broth now add pepper, chili powder, cumin, garlic & dry red peppers.
  • 3
    Add potatoes, carrots, celery, onions, basil, bay leafs and cilantro. Add with the ham that boiled off with 3 cups of the broth from that stock toss the empty bones and any fat. Add the Tomatoes and Green Chilies juice and all to the soup. Add the dash of Worcestershire sauce, Louisiana hot sauce. Bring to a vigorous boil for about 5 to 10 minutes then turn it to medium semi cover and simmer for about 2 hours then turn down to medium low covered for the last hour.
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