black eyed pea stew

hello and welcome to a whole week of ELR savory recipes!

I’m doing this to challenge myself because all too often I end up eating canned beans for dinner with a side of cupcake. To be perfectly honest, cooking isn’t my strong point! I enjoy it, but baking is just so much more fun for me. My mom’s a great cook…but not me. I’m too neurotically anal about following directions and measurements to ever be a real chef.

But I love to eat…and I love to serve. I think Adam almost fell out of his chair when I told him I would be cooking a homemade dinner every single night this week. Heh heh heh.

And to kick it all off, I bring to you black eyed pea stew!

They say you should eat black eyed peas on New Years to ensure good luck all year long. Well, I’m not sure who “they” are and I’m a week late, but hope that eating this delicious stew brings bring lots of good luck!

The stew is thick with spicy chicken andouille sausage, collard greens, tomatoes and black eyed peas, of course.

I think the best part though, was that it literally came together in half an hour! That doesn’t include cooking the beans, of course, but you get my drift. Beans like this are very easy to cook ahead of time and store in the fridge or buy fresh, which was what I did yesterday. All I had to do was simmer them for eight minutes and they were good to go!

If you  have a Trader Joe’s within a fifty mile radius of your house, I highly recommend picking up some of their chicken sausage. I luuuuuuurve it.

I almost love chicken sausage as much as I love one pot meals. Cause who has time to do a million dishes?

This stew is healthy, tasty and sticks with you awhile due to all the protein in the sausage and beans. The collards are sneaky in there, too. Oh, and it’s a wee bit spicy. You’ll love it!

Black Eyed Pea Stew

serves 8

2 cups cooked black eyed peas (prepared from dry or from fresh according to package directions)

1 12-oz bag chopped collard greens

1/2 large yellow onion, chopped

2 cloves garlic, minced

1 28-oz can diced tomatoes

4 cups vegetable stock

1/2 tsp cayenne pepper

1 bay leaf

1 tsp salt

12 oz chicken andouille sausage (or regular..whatever floats your boat!), chopped into 1/2 inch thick slices

1 T canola oil

1 T cider vinegar

Heat the canola oil in a large dutch oven over medium heat. When hot, add the chopped onion and saute until soft and translucent—about six minutes. Add the garlic and saute thirty more seconds.

Add the chopped sausage and stir everything together. Cook for another five minutes, stirring often, so that the sausage can brown a bit. Then, add the veggie stock, black eyed peas, cayenne pepper, bay leaf and salt. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat and simmer for fifteen minutes.

Add the tomatoes, collards and vinegar. Simmer for another ten minutes or so until the greens have wilted and cooked down a little. Serve with hot sauce and cornbread on the side.

Cupcakes go well with this. I know from experience.