Simmered Black-Eyed Peas with Tomatoes Recipe
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This recipe [from Congregation Or VeShalom Sisterhood, Atlanta, Georgia] is adapted from the sisterhood’s synagogue cookbook, The Sephardic Cooks. It is traditional to serve these peas with “pink rice,” Sephardic-style rice cooked with a bit of tomato sauce. Miriam Cohen, a longtime member of the Sephardic community in Montgomery, Alabama, told me, “You know, when I cook pink rice, my son says, ‘This is Jewish soul food!’ It is, you know.”
Note: Recipes in Marcie Cohen Ferris’s book Matzoh Ball Gumbo were compiled from a diverse mix of Jewish Southerners who have blended religion and region through home cooking.
This recipe was featured as part of both our Southern Seder story and our Supercharge with Superfoods photo gallery.
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- 1 large onion, chopped
- 2 garlic cloves, minced
- 1 medium tomato, chopped
- 1/2 teaspoon dried thyme
- 3/4 teaspoon kosher salt
- 1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
- 2 boxes (10 ounces each) frozen black-eyed peas; if you use fresh peas, add more water if necessary
- 1 1/4 cups water
- In a large, heavy saucepan, heat the oil over medium heat. Add the onion and garlic and cook, stirring often, until tender, about 4 minutes. Add the tomato, thyme, salt and pepper and cook, stirring often, until the tomato starts to soften, about 2 minutes.
- Stir in the black-eyed peas and water; bring to a boil. Reduce the heat to low, cover and simmer until the peas are tender, about 30 minutes. Taste and correct the seasoning, if necessary. Serve the peas hot or warm.
From MATZOH BALL GUMBO: CULINARY TALES OF THE JEWISH SOUTH by Marcie
Cohen Ferris. Copyright © 2005 by Marcie Cohen Ferris. Used by
permission of the University of North Carolina Press.
This recipe, while from a trusted source, may not have been tested by the CHOW food
team.
I am from Alabama and ate this all the time growing up.
This just is just SOUL FOOD period !!!!!
I used canned beans (since I already had them on hand) and reduced the water a bit to compensate for the liquid in the can. This was a big hit with my husband on New Year's Day. He usually dislikes black eyed peas, but there's no way that we're not eating them for dinner that day! I'll be using this recipe next year, too.
My Bubbie, who had never been to the South, used to make black eyed peas with cinnamon and sugar.
This is lovely, but I got an earful from the M-I-L for taking rice to a seder once.
This is not "Jewish" soul food - this is Southern food, period.
Careful when bringing this dish to a seder -- or the accompanying pink rice -- Beans, peas, and rice are not kosher for Passover if you do not follow Sephardic tradition.
Now I want the receipe for Pink Rice!