SPICY COLLARDS AND BLACK-EYED PEA SOUP

Cold, rainy weather calls for a delicious, warm, nourishing soup. If you don't like collards, use a different leafy green. If you don't like black-eyed peas, use a different bean. If you make both of those changes, rename the soup!

The recipe is by Susan Voisin at the whole food, plant-based (WFPB) blog “Fat Free Vegan Kitchen”: Spicy Collards and Black-eyed Pea Soup. Her recipes are already oil-free so it’s a good blog to use if you are new to eating WFPB and are not used to cooking. Go to her page for the recipe. I only made changes based on the ingredients I had on hand and my personal preferences. I served it with cornbread.

Clarifications and what I did differently:

-My diced small bell pepper made a heaping cup

-Used 6 cloves of garlic

-2 cups of dried black-eyed peas is a 1 pound bag

-Didn't have collards so used a 12 oz bag of frozen spinach

-Since I had so many garden tomatoes, I used 1 pound chopped fresh tomatoes instead of canned tomatoes

-I sauteed the starting vegetables over medium heat, adding a splash of water when wanted to stick. I added the fresh tomatoes after about the first 30 minutes of cooking the peas. I then simmered the soup covered on low for about another 1 1/2 hours until the peas were softened to my liking. Next I added the frozen spinach and simmered another 10 minutes.

Why are bean and vegetable soups so good?

-Easy to prepare

-Eating soup before a meal (called pre-loading) lowers the amount of food eaten during the meal so can facilitate weight loss

-Eating soup as a meal lowers the calorie density of the meal so can facilitate weight loss

-Very nutritious

-Most freeze well for later convenient meals

-Typically inexpensive

-Can be comforting and increase positive feelings