Happy New Year!
As I prepare the black-eyed peas tonight, I thought I'd repost this favorite recipe.
Our New Year's Day tradition is to eat black-eyed peas to bring good tidings for the coming year. It's a tradition that we've adopted from the South as it just seems like a wholesome and nutritious way to begin a bright new year.
We've used a different recipe every year but I think this time, we've found a keeper. It's a simple herb-based recipe with a decadent walnut sauce - it is so good!
As per the recipe, Mike soaked and cooked the beans - and then I took over from there. This made him very nervous as he knows how hard it is for me to stick to a recipe.
This is what sets Mike and I apart in the kitchen. He sees recipes as road maps to a wonderful destination. I do as well but I seem to take a few detours along the way. I'm not proud of it, especially when things don't turn out. Baked goods are most vulnerable. But I managed to follow the recipe this time, and the dish was delicious!
The black-eyed peas and walnut sauce recipes come from Madhur Jeffrey's World Vegetarian, a book we've enjoyed for years.
The walnut sauce recipe, which is so worth making as an accompaniment, is:
1/2 cup shelled walnuts
5 Tbs. olive oil
3 Tbs. fresh lemon juice
1/2 tsp. salt, or to taste
1/4 cup vegetable stock or cooking liquid from black-eyed peas
For sauce, bring 4 cups of water to a boil. Put in the walnuts and let them boil rapidly for 3 minutes; drain. Combine the olive oil, lemon juice, salt and stock in a blender. Crumble the walnuts and add them as well. Blend, pushing down with a rubber spatula when needed, until you have a smooth paste. Pour the sauce over black-eyed peas and serve.
3 Tbs. fresh lemon juice
1/2 tsp. salt, or to taste
1/4 cup vegetable stock or cooking liquid from black-eyed peas
For sauce, bring 4 cups of water to a boil. Put in the walnuts and let them boil rapidly for 3 minutes; drain. Combine the olive oil, lemon juice, salt and stock in a blender. Crumble the walnuts and add them as well. Blend, pushing down with a rubber spatula when needed, until you have a smooth paste. Pour the sauce over black-eyed peas and serve.
This sauce would be great on anything - stir fry, steamed vegetables, beans, etc. It has a wonderful flavor. If you don't like things too lemony, I'd reduce the lemon just a tad.
Bon Appetite and Happy New Year!
Happy New Year!
ReplyDeleteYour meal sounds delicious! I have never made either.
ReplyDeleteI never follow a cooking recipe EVER - but with baking I often do but add more flavor - as the recipes seldom call for enough of that. I often cut back on the sugar, too.
HAPPY NEW YEAR - hope it is one of your best ever! : - )
Exactly, that's how it begins...Reducing an ingredient like sugar. I want to try maple sugar in dry form. I have a friend who bakes with it and everything tastes wonderful. And it's equal parts substitution, which is tremendously helpful ; ) Happy New Year! Catherine
DeleteI had to chuckle at your road map reference ... you kind of described my husband and me. He doesn't like following recipes and I'm a recipe follower to the "T" (I like to read road maps, too). Opposites attract, right?
ReplyDeleteHappy New Year to you, Mike and the kids!
Claudia
Greetings and Happy New Year! So delighted to have found your blog and love your presentations! Looking so forward to visiting often!
ReplyDeleteJoanMarie
Happy New Year to you and your family! Can't wait to see the progress in your home this year. Question about the recipe; is Black Eyed Peas in Herbs the name of the recipe on page 111 which you used? Thanks.
ReplyDeleteNo, we are using the one on Page 18. The walnut sauce is listed below it. Enjoy!
DeleteHappy New Year, I started making Hoppin John Soup for New Years Day. I started when at my grocery store years ago I had to find out why the black eyed peas were all gone off the shelves prior to New Years Day. I live in RI so the Souther tradition must have traveled. Enjoy.
ReplyDeleteHere as well, they were selling out at our local co-op!
DeleteHappy New Year!
ReplyDeleteThis recipe sounds delicious and I feel so so lucky now - I happen to own that very same book! Have to dive into it straight away...
The walnut sauce is so good! I highly recommend adding it to the beans. I love to drizzle it on top like a dressing rather than mixing it into the beans. Enjoy!
DeleteHappy New Year! Even though we no longer live in the south we always have black eyed peas for New Years lunch. Of course, we also have greens (spinach) as tradition states that it helps to bring more green (money!) into your life!
ReplyDeleteWe just finished our new years dinner with greens, pork, and black eye peas! Your recipe sounds amazing, Happy New Year!
ReplyDeleteHappy New Year!!! We, too, had black-eyed peas yesterday! Several years ago after we enjoyed our New Years day meal I thought "These are SOOO delicious, why do we only eat them on new year's day????" So now we eat them all year. I do mine over rice with cornbread on the side!
ReplyDeletexxoj.
Happy new year 2016!
ReplyDeleteHappy New Year!!
ReplyDeleteBeans and Walnuts? Must try it.
Agnes
Happy New Year! I've spent today, off and on, catching up on your blog. I had not read it since you sold the Oregon house. (I returned to work outside the home, and time escaped me.) I am really taken in with the renovation of your current house and can't wait to see how it turns out! Glad I'm up to date now. Wishing you blessings in the new year.
ReplyDeleteKaren