Black-eyed Peas with Smoked Bacon is a delicious, hearty dish made from dried legumes, bacon, onion and garlic, simmered long and slow in broth. It’s a real bowl of comfort food on a cold day.
I make this dish at least once a year, for New Year’s Day, but I realized recently that I had never shared it.
The folder with all the photos has many different pots, as evidence of the many times I intended to and took pictures to that end so don’t be alarmed if the cooking pot suddenly changes color or shape as you read on! The recipe remains the same.
By Southern tradition, eating black-eyed peas on New Year’s Day is meant to bring you good luck all year long. Does it work? Who knows but I know better than to test my luck by going without!
Black-eyed Peas with Smoked Bacon
I like to use a small slab of smoked bacon which I cut up for this dish but if that’s not available to you, use an equal amount of sliced bacon or even smoked sausage.
Ingredients
1 lb or 450g dried black-eyed peas
5 1/3 oz or 150g smoked bacon
1 medium onion
4 garlic cloves
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
1 teaspoon freshly cracked black pepper
1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper
3 cups chicken or vegetable stock
2-3 bay leaves
Fine sea salt to taste
To serve:
hot pepper sauce
cooked rice
parsley for garnish, if desired
Method
Put the black-eyed peas in a large pot and quick-soak by covering them – plus a couple of inches more - with boiling water.
Put the lid on the pot and leave the peas to soak for 1 hour. Drain and rinse the peas.
Chop the onion.
Chop the garlic and cut the bacon slab into thick pieces.
Heat the oil in a large pot over medium-high heat. Add the onion and garlic to the pot and cook, stirring, until the onion and garlic are softened, about 6 to 8 minutes. Add the smoked bacon, black pepper, cayenne and bay leaves and stir well.
Add in the rinsed black-eyed peas and give the whole pot a good stir.
Pour in the stock. Bring the mixture to a boil, then reduce the heat and simmer, covered until the peas are very soft, about 1 to 1 1/2 hours. Check occasionally to make sure the stock hasn't evaporated completely, adding a little more water, if necessary.
Taste for seasonings, and add salt and more freshly ground black pepper, if needed. Some smoked bacon can be quite salty so it’s best to wait till the end of cooking time before adding salt. Discard the bay leaves.
Serve the black-eyed peas with some hot pepper sauce, if desired, over cooked white rice. In southern Louisiana, we would also serve this with a homemade relish we call chow-chow. Garnish with a little chopped parsley, if desired.
Enjoy!
It’s Sunday FunDay and today we are sharing recipes make with dried beans. Many thanks to our host Sneha of Sneha’s Recipe. Check out the links below.
- Black-eyed Peas with Bacon from Food Lust People Love
- Indian Style Bean Salad from Mayuri's Jikoni
- Instant Pot 13 Bean Soup with Ham from A Day in the Life on the Farm
- Instant Pot Mexican Pinto Beans from Making Miracles
- Meatless Shepherd's Pie from Amy's Cooking Adventures
- Protein Rich Devil's Food Muffins from A Messy Kitchen
- Punjabi Style Chitra Rajma Masala with Homemade Rajma Masala from Sneha's Recipe
- Rajma Pulav - Kidney Beans Pulav from Sizzling Tastebuds
- Slow Cooker Chicken and White Bean Soup from Our Good Life
- Vegan Butter Bean Beetroot Salad from Cook with Renu
We are a group of food bloggers who believe that Sunday should be a family fun day, so every Sunday we share recipes that will help you to enjoy your day. If you're a blogger interested in joining us, just visit our Facebook group and request to join.
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