- 2 tbl duck fat or olive oil
- 1 onion
- 1 leek
- 1 large carrot
- 2 stalks of celery
- 2 cloves of garlic
- 1/2 a chili pepper
- handful of kale
- 1/2 cup white wine
- 1 bay leaf
- 1 tbl parsley
- salt and pepper to season
- 1 and 1/4 cup black eyed peas
- 2 cups water
- 3 cups veg stock
- 1 14oz can of diced tomatoes
- 1/4 cup of tubetini
snow days…got the call at 5am. yes 5am. needless to say my day has been full of shoveling, sledding, snowball fights and dance parties which included me dancing around for about an hour. i did however have an hour of peace. p slept and j played on the computer. i prepared dinner.
i have been seeing so many black eyed pea recipes lately. i’m from ny, i had no idea people had black eyed peas on new years. basically i’m behind about 7 days and 30 something years…let’s not go there though 
i saw ready to cook black eyed peas in whole foods the other day and picked it up. soup, sure, sounds good. what kind of soup? sometimes i don’t know till i start cooking. weird i know, most people have a plan when they start cooking. most of the time i do not. i go into the kitchen with an idea, sometimes it doesn’t work out, but most of the time it does.
my goal today was a black eyed pea soup. something very simple and pure. nothing crazy and something that included duck fat. i am pretty sure i have an obsession with fat. everyone starts soups with onions and carrots, throw in some celery and stock and you have soup, but what to add to it. i just went with it. thanks to my sister the chef, i had some great inspiration while i cooked. we chatted about flavors that would taste great together. she is a great person to bounce ideas off of. she is also very supportive of me so just listening to her telling me to go with my gut helped. so my black eyed pea soup turned into a minestrone. it’s great, full of black eyed peas, carrots, celery, onions, garlic and tomatoes. waiting 7 days after new years to eat black eyed peas is ok right? will i still have good luck 
black eyed pea minestrone soup
just a note: i used duck fat. why, i wish i felt comfortable cursing on here, but i have a ton of it. if you don’t have duck fat, bacon would be a great replacement or even olive oil. if using bacon fat slice up bacon and fry in your soup pot till crisp, take out but leave the fat and proceed with recipe. if using olive oil, just add it to the pan and proceed. also, i used ready to use black eyed peas, i found them in the vegetable aisle at whole foods
- in a dutch oven, on a med high, add your fat, onion, leek, celery, carrot, garlic and chili pepper chopped finely or to your liking. let it cook for about 5 minutes
- after about 5 minutes, add your bay leaf, kale, parsley, and wine. let cook another 5 minutes. when wine is reduced to about a 1/4 of what you started with. add your peas and cook for about 3-4 minutes.
- add your water, stock and tomatoes. mix, bring to a boil and then reduce to a simmer.
- cook for about 2 hours on a low simmer.
- just before serveing, i bring the flame up to high bring up to boil. add pasta.
- when pasta is soft and cooked, ladle into a bowl and serve.
this is probably one of the best minestrone soups i have ever made. it was quick and easy. great meal for a cold snowy day with a nice piece of homemade foccacia (recipe to come). my house smells awesome right now
