It ain't hoppin john, but it's still good!

This last year was a legume year. I did green beans and cream peas. Cream peas are more related to black eyed peas than they are to English (sweet) peas, though both are legumes.

I was betting on a pretty warm dry Spring and my bet paid off. It was indeed hot and pretty dry. Cream peas did great with it. I got about two pounds of dried from my two 10' x 10' beds (among other veg).

I don't do it by tradition, but I figured that New Years would be a great time to crack open the mason jars I've stored the dried peas in and make some. It's not exactly hoppin john or the traditional black eyed peas, but it's close enough!

Thing is, my wife is vegetarian so I couldn't just cook them in with bacon, or ham, or salt pork.

I read through a few recipes and adapted them so that the base recipe below is completely vegetarian, but without sacrificing deep flavor.

If you are cooking for a vegetarian (yourself or someone else), or you just want a lighter alternative, give it a try and let me know what you think info@goodthingsfromcoryskitchenandyard.com

p.s. my wife is vegetarian, but I'm not. When the peas were done, I decanted half of them to another pot for her and then added some smoked sausage to mine (but you could just as well add some ham too). I then brought it back to a simmer and let it go another 20 or so minutes.

Vegetarian Cream Peas

1 pound dried cream peas, picked over and rinsed off

2 quarts vegetable stock

4 Tbsp butter, cut to 4 pieces

1 medium sweet onion, chopped fine

1 carrot, peeled and chopped fine

1 celery rib and chopped fine

Herbs of your choice: some sprigs of fresh thyme, a couple bay leaves, etc.

salt and pepper

1. The day before you want to eat the cream peas, put them in a medium bowl and pour vegetable stock over them to cover by about 1" (this should be about one of your quarts). Cover the bowl, put it in the fridge for about 24 hours.

   
   

2. About an hour before you're going to start cooking, take the bowl with the peas out of the fridge and put them on the counter to let them shake off the chill.

   
   

3. Put the butter in a large saucepan (4 quart or bigger) or a dutch oven on medium heat, swirling til it melts. Add the celery, onion, and carrot along with any herbs like the thyme sprigs. Toss in about a half teaspoon of salt.

   
   

4. Sweat the veg for 8 minutes until the onions start to get translucent. Add the cream peas and any remaining stock in the bowl. Open the second quart of vegetable stock and pour over the top until the peas are covered by about 1" of stock. Stir.

   
   

5. Bump the heat to medium high and bring to a boil. Boil for about 5 to 10 minutes. Drop the heat to low (very low). cover, and simmer for about 1 to 2 hours until the peas are tender and creamy. Keep the heat low, you want the simmer to be one or two bubbles breaking the surface at a time. If you struggle to get your burner low enough, try putting your saucepan inside a cast iron skillet on the burner (sometimes this helps me).

   
   

6. Season with salt and pepper to your taste.

Notes:

I like extra butter so I have more than is absolutely necessary here. You can cut the butter by half if you'd like. You can also switch to olive oil.

Do not add any more salt until all the way at the end! Stock varies greatly in its salinity and you do not want your peas overseasoned. This goes double if you are adding meat to some portion or all of the peas.

If you are sharing this with a meat eater, some sliced smoked sausage, ham, andouille, or similar to the meat eater's taste. In the picture above you have about 2/3's of a full sized piece of smoked sausage from the grocery.

I added some chopped roasted green chiles to the recipe above for some added flavor (and to replace some of the smokey/charred flavor you lose without smoked meat).