Black Eyed Pea and Spinach Bowls

Never in a million years would I ever have guessed the love affair I was going to end up having with legumes.

As a chef, recipe developer, and hard core carnivore for most of my life, dried beans, lentils, and chick peas were an aisle I completely avoided at the grocery store.

In fact, truth be known, the only beans I ever bought came from a can - and that was usually to make chili... or lentil soup.

But the first time I ever made a curry with dried chick peas, I was converted. The flavour, texture, and versatility of them belw me away and sent me on a quest to learn more and taste more from these nutritional (and very inexpensive) power house foods.

Which brings me to black eyed  peas. As a food blogger, I've been aware for years of the Southern US tradition of serving black eyed peas for good luck on New Years day and this year I decided I just had to try it.

Now I know dried beans can seem daunting because there's a certain amount of cooking required, but if you have a trusty slow cooker, I'm here to tell you, this super economical, delicious, and healthy meal is a SNAP to prepare!

You just saute up a little mirepoix of onions, carrots, celery, and garlic, diced tomatoes, dump in the beans, some veggie stock, a few spices and aromatics, put on the lid and simmer on low for 8 hours.

I like to get it all ready in my slow cooker the night before and then turn it on before I leave for work in the morning.

Serve with your favourite rice, and some cooked spinach, and you've got an awesome bowl of deliciousness on a cold winter night. Better still, it makes a ton and freezes like a dream for lunches and dinners later in the month!

Black Eyes Peas and Spinach 
Visit printable recipe HERE

Prep Time: 10 minutes
Cook Time: 8 hours

Ingredients

• 1 tsp olive oil
• 3 carrots, diced
• 2 large stalks celery, diced 
• 1 onion, diced
• 3 large cloves garlic, diced
• 2 chopped tomatoes
• 2 cups dried black eyed peas
• 4 cups vegetable stock
• 1/2 tsp liquid smoke
• 1 tsp Italian seasoning
• 1/2 tsp paprika
• 1/4 tsp chili flake
• 1 tsp chopped parsley
• salt to taste
• 1/2 tsp black pepper
• 8 cups baby spinach

Directions

1. Saute the vegetable in olive oil until the garlic becomes fragrant and everything is well coated
2. Put everything but the spinach into a crock pot and cook on low 8 hours.
3. Steam spinach until tender and drain well.
4. Serve spinach and peas with your favourite rice in bowls.