Review: Potato and Black-Eyed Pea Soup

I was really happy with this recipe! My whole family went back for seconds, including my picky husband who basically hates everything and anything I cook. It was filling and easy and I converted it to a crock-pot recipe. What I like about this one is you can make a lot to go around with few ingredients that also happen to be pretty cheap.


Original Recipe:

Potato and Black-Eyed Pea Soup

2 quarts chicken, turkey, or vegetable stock (I used the stuff I made by boiling down our Thanksgiving turkey carcass.)
1 1/2 pounds Yukon Gold potatoes in 3/4-inch cubes (5 small – 3 large. I scrub but don’t peel them)
1 1/2 cups dry black-eyed peas (3-4 cups soaked, or 2 cans)
1/2 pound of firm sausage (I like andouille. Polish is fine, too.)
1/2 pound collard greens, after washing, de-stemming, and tearing into pieces (Or 1/2 a bag of frozen chopped collards)
1 onion
Salt** and pepper to taste

Halve or quarter sausage lengthwise and slice 1/4″ to 1/2″ thick, as you prefer. Brown it and drain it thoroughly.
Cook onion a little in a bit of the leftover sausage grease.
In a large pot, add coarsely-chopped onions and soaked beans to stock and boil, then simmer for an hour or so.
Add the potatoes and cook until they are partly done.
Add collards and cook until they are wilted.
Squash the potatoes against the side of the pot and stir them in to thicken the soup.
You can also leave the lid off and let it cook down awhile until it reaches desired thickness (I like thick soup)

I used what was left of my turkey stock (I make stock from scratch by boiling down the bones and drippings), since I didn't have enough by half I added some water and chicken powder bullion. I used frozen black eyed peas and fresh collards. I used regular idaho potatos since they were cheaper and as a fan of yellow potatoes I can say with confidence that I do not feel the recipe suffered for using idahos instead. For sausage I had a hard time choosing and ultimately went with an angus beef smoked sausage.

 **I want to stress to not add salt to this recipe. Ever. For any reason. Why? The broth and sausage lend it plenty of salt so there is really no need for it. In fact, I may go for a low sodium sausage next time because for my salt sensitive pallet I would like to have noticed the sodium a bit less, but it wasn't overwhelming by a long shot!

We really liked this recipe, happy to make it again. I did brown the sausage in a bit of oil, then cooked the onion in the oil/dripping mixture and just dumped everything into a pot. I cooked on low for 6 hours and served. I didn't mash the potatoes down but it's totally an option!


My cost breakdown-

Sausage- $1.75 after coupon
Collards- roughly $1.00
Onion, bullion and stock- pennies over time.
Potatoes- $1.00 for entire bag, only used 4.

.37 a serving for 10 servings!