Foods like this thickened Black-Eyed Pea soup with tomato, Greek sausage, and a hint of spiciness, are more than ideal for cold winter days. To fill you up with warmth and nutrients.
Made with few ingredients, mostly veggies like onion, carrot, celery. Plus canned tomato sauce and extra virgin olive oil. And flavored with garlic, a whole chili pepper, dried Greek oregano (which goes amazing with the sausage). And topped with pan-fried Greek or Italian sausage (they're very similar). You can always skip the sausage if you want a Vegetarian meatless soup. As it's very flavorful on its own.
Get The Most Out Of This Black-Eyed Pea Soup
You can use fresh tomatoes (grated, instead of the canned tomato sauce). By substituting the 250 grams (8.8 oz) of tomato sauce with 350 grams (12.3 oz) of fresh tomato, grated or blended.
Or you may use a homemade sauce like this one. It will make the soup even more flavorful.
Also, make sure you use extra virgin olive oil to give real flavor and properly thicken the soup (no need to mention the health benefits).
Black-Eyed Peas Vs Classic Beans
The Good news about black-eyed peas? They don't require any overnight soaking like a white bean soup does for example. You just toss in a pot and cook right away. Or actually, after you boil them for 1 minute and discard the first water. Because they turn the water black and this way you remove some part of this. You may then add some clean water, the remaining ingredients and go ahead with making the soup.
They cook much quicker than beans. Unlike beans, you don't need to wait for hours for black eyed-peas to get tender. This soup takes about 1 hour and a half tops to make on the stovetop.
As for the nutritional value, they contain much or less the same amount of nutrients like Fiber, Protein, Iron, etc. Though black eyed-peas are even more micro-nutrient and mineral-dense, aka loaded in Copper, Folate, Thiamine, Phosphorus, Magnesium, Zinc. And also contain smaller amounts of Potassium, Selenium, Riboflavin, Vitamin B6.
In overall, this Black Eyed Pea soup is cozy, delicious, and very very healthy. A must-make winter dish!
Black-Eyed Pea Soup With Sausage
Ingredients
- 250 grams / 8.8 oz black-eyed peas
- 1 small onion finely chopped
- 1 stick of celery finely chopped
- 1 small carrot diced
- 2 small or 1 large garlic clove chopped
- 250 grams / 8.8 oz canned tomato sauce
- 1 small chili pepper
- 8 tablespoons olive oil extra virgin
- 1 teaspoon dried oregano
- 150 grams / 5.3 oz Greek or Italian sausage cut into 1 cm thick slices
Instructions
- Half fill a cooking pot with water and add the black-eyed peas. Bring to a boil and let them boil for 1 minute. Then strain in a strainer.
- Add the black-eyed peas back in the pot along with 1,5 liter of water, the onion, celery, carrot, and garlic.
- Bring to a boil, then reduce heat to medium and simmer partly covered for 45 minutes to 1 hour. Or until peas are tender enough but not overcooked and mushy.
- Season with salt and pepper, add the tomato sauce, chili pepper (whole), dried oregano, and olive oil. Add a splash of water if needed. Cook for another 30 minutes stirring every now and then until the soup thickens. Remove from heat and set aside.
- In a frying pan or skillet, add a splash of olive oil and heat over high heat. Add the sausage and cook for 4-5 minutes until nicely browned and seared all over.
- Serve the soup topped with the fried sausage. Or you may stir the sausage into the soup depending on your liking.
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Lovely recipe that I'm anxious to give a go as soon as I track down some loukaniko sausage at one of our local sausage shops that make assorted sausages from scratch we'd never find in a grocery store.
Have to thank you for solving the mystery of why the crockpot spicy black eyed peas I make every year for New Years day, turns very dark once I add my black eyed peas to the crockpot.
Now I know, thanks to you Fotini, to bring the peas to a boil first then drain them to stop my spicy black eyed peas dish looking so dark. Amazing, even at 77 years of age, I'm still learning something new every day!
Hi Joycelyn, glad you like the recipe. That's the amazing thing about cooking, isn't it? There is always something new to learn. By the way, great choice on the sausage, if it's made from scratch it's always best!
Tasty, yummy and easy.👍