Creamy soup to make a black-eyed-pea believer
Sometimes I get the feeling that too many people eat black-eyed peas annually — on New Year’s Day. While I love the Southern tradition of black-eyed peas and rice (hoppin’ John), often eaten with greens, I’m here to say that blackeyed peas deserve a place in your repertoire the rest of the year, too.
Don’t get caught up in the need to cook them from dried. You can certainly do that if you have the time — or a pressure cooker — but there’s no shame in opening a can on any given weeknight. However you get there, black-eyed peas are a no-brainer with rice, of course, or whatever grain you prefer. Their sturdy texture makes them a natural in summery salads, too, and this time of year they can star in soups.
Take this one, from cookbook author Gennaro Contaldo. It’s simple at its core, just a nice combination of aromatic vegetables and herbs, vegetable broth and a can of black-eyed peas, pureed into something creamy but without cream. What takes the dish up a notch is the olive pesto you quickly blitz while the soup cooks. It’s sharp and a little crunchy, and when you dollop some on top and stir it in, the soup goes from good to glorious.
Add some bread and/or a salad, and you’ve got a hearty meal to enjoy all winter long.
Creamy Black-Eyed Pea Soup With Olive Pesto
1 leek, white and light-green parts, trimmed
1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil
1 clove garlic, chopped
1 small carrot, scrubbed well and chopped Leaves from
1 stem fresh thyme
1 (15-ounce) can black-eyed peas, drained and rinsed
2 ½ cups vegetable broth
Salt, to taste
¼ teaspoon ground black pepper
For the pesto:
1 ¼ cups pitted green olives
¼ cup lightly packed flat-leaf
parsley leaves
1 clove garlic
1 teaspoon capers, drained
1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil
For the soup: Cut the leek in half lengthwise, rinse thoroughly (including between the layers), pat dry and then chop.
Pour the oil into a medium saucepan over medium heat. Once the oil shimmers, stir in the leek, garlic, carrot and thyme, and cook until the vegetables start to become tender, for 4 minutes.
Stir in the black-eyed peas and pour in the broth. Increase the heat to medium-high and bring to a boil, then reduce the heat to medium-low, cover and cook until the vegetables are very tender and the flavors have come together, 15 minutes. Stir in the salt and pepper, and remove from the heat.
Meanwhile, make the pesto: Combine the olives, parsley, garlic, capers and oil in a food processor or blender; pulse until well incorporated but still a little chunky.
To finish the soup, use an immersion (stick) blender to puree until smooth. Taste, and add more salt as needed.
Divide the soup among bowls. Top each portion with a generous dollop of the olive pesto.
Makes about 4 servings. Adapted from “Gennaro’s Fast Cook Italian,”by Gennaro Contaldo (Interlink Books, 2018)