Homemade Good Luck Soup

So, Christmas – Done. New Years Day – tomorrow! Another year older and hopefully wiser.

Have you noticed all the food traditions associated with the new year? Of course my Texan Missus has hers, which involves black eyed peas and leafy greens (representing good luck, good health & good fortune), which is now a tradition I’ve adopted.

I’m thinking the feast you just had on Christmas might have yielded some leftover turkey or ham and with a lot of you in the midst of winter right now one of the easiest, healthiest & quickest meals to put together is a great big ol’ pot of soup, which is also a great way to use up the leftovers. (If you don’t have any ham check out this turkey soup recipe.) I bunged this together in about 30 minutes (hassle-free indeed) and man was it good! You’ll love how good this smells cookin’ up in your kitchen and will probably serve you well as a good hangover munchie.

RECIPE:

Serves 6ish

1 cup white onion – small dice

1 cup carrot – small dice

1 cup celery – small dice

3 bay leaves

3 cups cooked ham – fat trimmed, diced

2 cups potatoes – small dice

2 cups dried black eyed peas, soaked overnight & drained*

2 tbsp olive oil

1/2 bunch fresh thyme – wrapped with string like a bouquet garni

7-8 cups low-sodium or homemade chicken broth

NOTE: The beauty about making a soup like this is that the measurements don’t have to be exact. If you have more potatoes or carrots who cares, bung em in. The more the merrier. Just add enough liquid to make it soupy. At the end of the day guys it’s just food. Enjoy cooking.

*Feel free to use canned black eyed peas but rinse them first. Canned beans are already cooked so you should add them in towards the end of the cooking time. But if you do use the dried peas, be sure to check out my trick for making them flavourful!

DIRECTIONS:

Preheat large soup pot on medium heat for 1 minute. Add olive oil and onion and saute for 2 minutes, stirring. Next add carrot, celery, bay leaves and ham and saute for 4-5 minutes, stirring occasionally. Once veg are beginning to soften add broth, potatoes and thyme and soaked black eyed peas, bring to a boil. Once boiling reduce heat to a simmer and cook for 2o-30 minutes until veg are cooked through. Add more liquid if needed.

Taste and season with S&P.

That’s it. How easy was that?

HAPPY NEW YEAR EVERYBODY AND THANKS FOR THE CONTINUED SUPPORT.

CHEERS TO A HEALTHY AND PROSPEROUS 2010!!

All recipes are made with the finest quality farmers market whole foods, natural and non-processed ingredients as much as possible.