Black Eyed Pea Soup

I like to follow the old tradition of eating black eyed peas on New Year's Day to bring good luck for the coming year.  We love black eyed peas and although I'm not superstitious, I think it's fun to follow these kind of traditions.  However,  I failed to remember to get the peas for when we returned from our Disney World vacation.  We got home on the afternoon of New Year's Day, so after being up for almost 12 hours by the time we walked in the door, going to the store was not top on my list.  We ended up going to my Dad's for dinner, which was wonderful.  He made some delicious cabbage rolls, also a New Year's Day tradition, so we did get to eat some "good luck" food after all.  

I decided to do our New Year's Day meal the next day after a good night's rest and a ridiculously huge trip to the store.  My friend Staci made the best black eyed pea soup for bunco last month, and I thought it would be perfect for our meal.  She was gracious enough to share her recipe and we had the soup and left over cabbage rolls from my dad for dinner.  With two good luck foods at one meal, our 2013 has got to turn out awesome, right?!  

Here is the recipe:  (thanks, Staci :) )

8 slices of bacon

1 onion diced

a couple cloves of garlic

1 jalepeno pepper

6 cups of beef broth

1 large can of tomatoes

6 cans of black eyed peas - washed and drained

 

Cut bacon into 1" slices and saute in a skillet with the jalepeno and garlic.  Bacon will not be crispy, just cook till it looks "done".  In a large pan combine all ingredients and bring to a boil and then let it simmer for about 30 minutes or so.  Serve with pepper jack cheese.

This recipe gets a two thumbs up!  Brad loved it because it has a lot of bacon flavor.  Yum!