I made the following soup yesterday and it was really good! Served it
with cornbread and a green salad and felt really contented for the rest
of the evening--of course that might also be because we've had
houseguests for 10 days who wanted to eat out literally every night but
one. It was so nice to have our home back and get back into the kitchen
to make "comfort food" instead of poring through menus--I love eating out
but enough is enough!
This recipe is adapted from _Recipes from the Night Kitchen: A Practical
Guide to Spectacular Soups, Stews, and Chilies_ by Sally Nirenberg. It's
not a veg cookbook, but many recipes are veg or veg-adaptable, and she
has several different and tasty gazpachos (it's starting to heat up here
in Tucson--I make huge batches of gazpacho in the summer to keep on hand for
meals, snacks, whatever).
BLACKEYED PEA SOUP WITH KALE
1/2 pound blackeyed peas
water to cover
2 T. water, broth, or other sauteing liquid
1 large Spanish onion, coarsely chopped
1 carrot, sliced
1 stalk celery, sliced
2 cloves garlic, pressed or finely chopped
8 c. low-salt veg. broth (I buy a salt-free veg. broth powder in bulk at
the HFS and use 1 tsp. to 1 c. water)
1 c. dry white wine
1 tsp. dried thyme (I used a heaping tsp.)
1/2 tsp. red pepper flakes (recipe calls for 1/4 tsp., but the recipes in
this book sometimes aren't as assertively seasoned as we like)
2 bay leaves
3/4 to 1 lb. kale (strip leaves from stems and chop pretty finely;
discard stems
Put blackeyed peas in a pot with the water and bring to a boil. Reduce
heat to medium and cook until needed in this recipe.
Cook onion, carrot, celery and garlic, covered, over low heat in sauteing
liquid until tender, about 20 minutes.
Add broth, wine, and spices and bring to a boil. Drain and rinse beans
and add to soup pot. Reduce heat and simmer, partially covered, for 2
hours.
Add chopped kale, stir, and cook 45 minutes. Salt to taste.
VARIATION:
You can use equivalent amounts of white beans or collard greens in place
of the blackeyed peas and kale. In fact, the original recipe called for
blackeyed peas and collard greens, with white beans and kale as the
variation. But I was using what was already in the kitchen :-)
And now a question for Frances, who flew Ethiopian Airlines: What is
"Halaal"?
Bon appetit,
Vicki
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Victoria Modarresi Dept. of English
vmodrsi@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx University of Arizona
(520)621-1836 FAX (520)621-7397 Tucson, AZ 85721
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