Black Eyed Pea Soup

Hello.... I hope you are having a great Tuesday! Last night for dinner was a big bowl of hot comforting soup. This was one of those times where I found a recipe that I wanted to try, but ended up not having half the ingredients that I needed to make it. At that time, I decided to wing it and do my own thing! I remembered to write down all the ingredients as I went along and even measured everything this time. :o) I'm so glad I did, because I plan on making this soup alot more!


2 tablespoons olive oil
1/2 onion (chopped)
2 cloves garlic (minced)
1 bell pepper (chopped)
1 tablespoon scallion (minced)
3 cups vegetable broth
1 15.8 oz can black eyed peas (rinsed and drained)
1 15 oz can diced tomatoes
1 cup chopped kale
1/2 cup elbow macaroni
1/4 teaspoon garam masala
salt and pepper to taste

Heat oil in a large pot over medium heat. Add the onion, garlic, bell pepper, and scallion. Saute for about 5 minutes and then add the kale and saute for about 5 more minutes.
Add the vegetable broth, peas, and tomatoes and bring to a boil. Add the macaroni, garam masala, salt and pepper. Mix well and simmer for 30-45 minutes. Simple and yummy!

Some of you may be wondering about the addition of the scallion. Well, my husband made himself some hamburger patties, to which he added some minced scallion. He ended up having some left over and thought my soup needed it. He gladly tossed his leftovers into my pot as I was sauteing the veggies. :o)

The next time I make this soup, I think I will add more kale...maybe 2 cups. One cup was all I had in the refrigerator and it was on the verge of ruining, so I decided to use it in the soup. I'm really digging the kale! Oh...what's that...you are asking if Tony ate any of the soup? That would be a "NO", only because it had "green stuff" (kale) in it. LOL

We also tried our hand at cooking some hash browns in the waffle maker. They didn't turn out so hot. :-( The potatoes were so full of starch that they were mushy. Don't get me wrong, the hashbrowns still tasted good, but they didn't turn out how we wanted. The next time I am going to soak the grated potatoes in cold water to get some of the starch out. Maybe that will help them to crisp up more? I was hoping they would turn out like this. A while back Rose told me about these, and I've been wanting to try them ever since. Maybe they will turn out better the next time....practice makes perfect....right?

~Peace~Love~Happiness~