Beans And Greens

Make this for New Year’s Day! The tradition of eating black-eyed peas for the New Year has evolved into a number of variations and embellishments on the luck and prosperity theme.  Or,  put it in your regular menu rotation because it’s plant-based and tastes great!

I cook black-eyed peas in my pressure cooker. They require no soaking, and cook completely in just 9 minutes. (That’s a reason to get a pressure cooker, right there. Just for cooking beans!)

Spicy-Smoky Black-Eyed Peas: Serves 8 or less

Source: Crescent Dragonwagon

Ingredients:

• 3 TBS. water, or more, to water saute (original recipe calls for vegetable oil)
• 1 onion, chopped
• 1 chipotle pepper in adobo sauce (I freeze these from the can into ice-cube trays, 1 pepper per cube–original recipe calls for 1/2 dried chipotle pepper, broken in half)
• 2 carrots, chopped
• 2 celery ribs, chopped
• 1 red bell pepper, chopped
• 3 garlic cloves, chopped (I use my roasted garlic cloves–see “Roasted Garlic For The Year” recipe)
• 4 15-oz cans black-eyed peas (I use 7 cups cooked beans, made from 3 cups dry beans)
• 1 TBS. dark or light miso (original recipe calls for 2 TBS.)
• 1 tsp. dark sesame oil (original recipe calls for 1 TBS.)
• 1 tsp. salt (not necessary–let people salt their own dishes if wanted)
• Freshly ground black pepper

Directions:

• Put water, onion, and chipotle pepper into large pot and saute about 5 minutes.
• Add carrots, celery, bell pepper and garlic; saute about 5 minutes.
• Add black-eyed peas to mixture.
• Add miso, sesame oil, and pepper. Stir gently.
• Cook over medium-low heat until thoroughly heated.

Cooking black-eyed peas in a pressure cooker:

Plain Black-Eyed Peas

• Add 3 cups dried black-eyed peas to 8 cups pre-boiled water (I don’t add oil), and cook on “HIGH” pressure for 9 minutes.
• Quick release pressure, remove lid carefully, taste-test for doneness,  and drain peas immediately.
• Yield: 7 cups cooked black-eyed peas

Note: Serve with steamed greens and cornbread (see “Jalapeno Cornbread Mini-Muffins” recipe), or over brown rice.  Top with chopped sweet onions and/or hot sauce.

Pressure cooker recommendation: I love my 6-quart electric programmable Cuisinart with it’s non-stick pot that can go in the dishwasher. It has “LOW” and “HIGH” pressures and can “brown”, “saute”, “simmer” and “keep warm”. I like that I can program my pc to come up to pressure, maintain pressure, and then “beep–beep–beep” when it’s time for me to release pressure.  These new pressure cookers are safe and reliable. I learned everything I needed to know from Lorna Sass, my favorite pressure cooker cookbook author! Make sure you have at least one of her books before starting!