Smoky Black Eyed Pea and Kale Stew

Imagine my shock when Rob called me from the grocery store to tell me they were out of broccoli. It wasn’t even a weekly special. No broccoli in the entire store. I thought new year’s meant more carrots, but maybe it really means broccoli? 😉

In any case, have no fear, I switched recipes and ended up clipping off the last of my garden kale. Yes, there has been snow here for over 2 weeks and yes, hidden underneath the snowy blanket, my kale is still alive and kicking. More power to the kale! (The broccoli dish will have to wait)

Black eyed peas are certainly not just for the new year, but I was drawn to this black eyed pea and kale stew through Random Recipes. This month’s challenge was to randomly select a recipe from a cookbook from someone else’s library. I decided to tackle this electronically. When I saw Ali was gifted Superfood Kitchen I tried to borrow it from the library, but it hasn’t been received yet. In that moment, I decided that the first recipe I found online from the cookbook would be my “random recipe” and I found it here: Kale and Black Eyed Pea Stew.  I like that Julie has incorporated more common “superfoods” into her cookbook, like leafy greens and legumes, which can be seen in this recipe.

This is no ordinary bean and green stew. Along with black eyed peas and kale, there is red pepper as well as my addition of oyster mushrooms. It is a European spice mash-up with oregano and thyme as well as smoked paprika and Ancho chile powder. I was scared to use a full tablespoon of smoked paprika, but feel free to use more because this was not spicy. I ended up adding liquid smoke at the end for a further depth of flavour. But oh, this alone would still be a great chili-like stew, but this it is not. A special twist comes form the addition of ground wakame. A little goes a long way and makes this a unique stew. It brings a certain seaweedy-ness to the stew. By the way, a few notes about my version: I used dried herbs in this recipe because I don’t usually use fresh herbs for a long simmer (they turn to mush, so maybe remove them as a bouquet garni). As well, the recipe calls for 3 cups of cooked black eyed peas but I am fairly confident this dish could be made more simply by cooking dried black eyed peas with the soup broth (which I have not tried but noted in the recipe below).

As you may have noticed, I am still on my smoked paprika kick. Here are other recipes I have bookmarked:

Smoky Tempeh and Chard Stew
Spanish Lentil and Mushroom Stew
Sneaky Collards at Serious Eats
Roasted Squash and Shallots with Merguez Chickpeas in River Cottage Veg Every Day
Spanish Chickpeas and Spinach Stew with Ginger at I don’t know, what do YOU want to eat?
Smoky Red Lentil Stew by Sprouted Kitchen
Smoky Paprika Baked Beans by The Spade & Spoon
Spiced Red Lentils by Ottolenghi
Pumpkin Chili by Never Homemaker
French Lentil Soup with Smoked Paprika in Let Them Eat Vegan!
Easy New Orleans Red Beans and Rice by Fat Free Vegan
“1 Million” Veggies Lentil Stew by Chocolate Covered Katie
My other recipes with smoked paprika are here

This is my submission to this month’s Random Recipes, to Ricki’s Weekend Wellness and to Deb for this week’s Souper Sundays.

Smoky Black Eyed Pea and Kale Stew
Adapted from Superfood Kitchen (original recipe here)

1 tbsp coconut oil
2 cups diced onions (about 2 small onions, I used red onions)
6 cloves garlic, minced
1 red bell pepper, diced (155g)
1 tsp dried oregano
1/2 tsp dried thyme
2 cups mushrooms, coarsely chopped (I used oyster mushrooms)
1/4 tsp Ancho chile powder
1 tsp smoked sweet paprika (consider upping this as it was originally for 1 tbsp)
3 cups vegetable broth
3 cups water
2 tbsp wakame flakes, ground or crushed into fine pieces (optional – this does make the soup taste like seaweed)
3 cups cooked black-eyed peas (I cooked up 1 cup dried black eyed peas earlier)
1 small bunch of kale, stemmed and thinly sliced (100g prepped)
Juice of 1/2 lemon (~2 tbsp)
5 drops liquid smoke, or to taste (optional)
Parsley or cilantro for garnish, omitted

1. In a large soup pot, melt the coconut oil over medium heat. Add the onions and saute until softened, around 5 minutes. Sprinkle with some salt. Add the garlic and cook for a further 1-2 minutes, until it is fragrant. Stir in the red pepper, oregano and thyme, stirring well to coat. Add the mushrooms, chile powder and smoked paprika, stirring until well coated. Saute for another 10 minutes until the mushrooms are softened and cooked through.

2. Add the vegetable broth, water, ground wakame flakes and beans and simmer for 30 minutes. (I am also convinced you could just add the dried black eyed peas now with a bit more water and just cook until the BEPs are firm to your liking, around 45 minutes).

3. Stir in the kale and continue to simmer for 1-2 minutes, until the kale has slightly wilted and turned a brilliant green. Add the lemon juice, optional liquid smoke, season with salt and pepper and garnish with parsley/cilantro.

Serves 4.