Southern Black Eyed Peas
Nothing says Happy New Years’ better than a pot of soulful black-eyed-eyed peas & soul food collard greens! Whether you buy into the hype that eating these dishes will bring wealth & a slew of other good things, just enjoying them with family and being thankful that I’ve made it into another year is MORE THAN ENOUGH for me!
This is my grandmother’s soul food recipe (that I’ve tweaked a bit). It’s a basic recipe for a pot of good ol, southern black-eyed peas. She blesses us with these throughout the year but on New Years’ they tend to taste a bit better. Talk about flavorful!!! Forget the bland, mushy black-eyed peas you may have tasted in the past. This recipe always gets a “wow, these are some good black-eyed peas!” from newbies that have never tasted hers before. Like always my grandmother just smiles and says “well…it could be better” lol (she’s adorable!)
This recipe could easily be turned into vegetarian-friendly black-eyed peas by omitting the meat and using vegetable broth instead of chicken broth. You can even get all fancy-schmancy and throw in some chopped tomatoes, celery, and all that other jazz.
Either way, they taste fabulous! Pour on some hot sauce and give me a fat piece of cornbread on the side and I’m a happy gal!
Watch me make these black-eyed peas from start to finish!
- 4-5 green onions, chopped (or 1 medium
- white onion, chopped)
- 3 cloves garlic, chopped
- 1 (16 oz) bag dry black-eyed peas
- Smoked Turkey (as much as you
- desire. I used half of a fully cooked, smoked turkey leg. Just chopped the meat up into bits. You can leave it whole if you do not like meat in your black-eyed peas but like the flavor)
- 6-8 cups of chicken broth (or enough to cover the beans)
- Red pepper flakes,
- black pepper (optional)
- Sort & wash the black-eyed peas. Set aside.
- Chop onions & garlic.
- In a large pot, add in 2 Tablespoons of olive oil and saute the onions and garlic until tender.
- Add in the chopped meat, black-eye peas, & chicken broth
- Cover and bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer for 1 hour or until black-eyed peas are tender.
- Remove from heat and let sit covered for about 10-15 minutes.
- Season with red pepper & black pepper if desired.
I will be making this dish this coming weekend. Do you prepare the black eyed peas by soaking them or do you use dried black eyed peas in your recipe? I will also try to make corn bread from scratch too.
Hi, I just made these Black eyed peas and they came out great!! I made a half recipe and put it in the Instant Pot for 25 minutes and it came out excellent!
Thanks for providing a basic Black Eyed Pea recipe. I am from the South and this was a staple in both sides of our family so far back nobody remembers. Great basic recipe which encourages the younger ones to eat it w/out it being too spicy or convoluted! Growing up pepper flakes, hot sauce, etc was almost sacrilegious. If you wanted it hot add more raw onion and grains pepper, just not to the pot! Your grandmother story reminded me of mine, and she was divine. Thanks again I will bookmark this recipe and use it often.
Can I use bacon?
I think bacon would be yummy and flavorful!
I can confirm – I make this almost every year with bacon instead of turkey or ham and it’s AWESOME!
Do you use raw bacon or cooked??
I find myself coming back to your site often for recipes for food that I grew up on. You never disappoint! This recipe is another winner!
Mmmmm Baby someone call the fire department that was a hot dish this Sunday thank you thank you I am 28 years old and thanks too you and some of your dishes I’m the best cook around town thank you sistaaaa