How to Cook Black-Eyed Peas and Turnips Au Gratin

The last time I went shopping and looked for some dried beans, the only ones left on the shelf were black-eyed peas. I think I have only eaten them once or twice in my life, so I didn’t have a vivid recollection of what they tasted like. I imagined others at the market wondered the same thing, which is why they sat there all by their lonesome selves. But I figured a bean is a bean is a bean. So why not experiment and learn how to cook black-eyed peas?

The first thing I must say about just about any kind of bean: a little pork of some kind usually improves the taste immensely. I always keep bacon in my freezer because then I can cut off an inch or two for a dish like this whenever I need it. If you don’t eat pork, use whatever leftover meat bones you have or at least some vegetable stock to boost the flavor.

Cooking the Black-Eyed Peas

After letting the black-eyed peas soak overnight, I drained them. Then I chopped up the bacon and browned it in a skillet. I added some chopped onion, celery, bell pepper, carrot and garlic. Then I dumped that into a slow cooker along with the beans and enough water to cover them. I had a can of chipotle (smoked dried jalapenos in a sauce). So I put that into a food processor combining the peppers and the sauce from the can. Then I added about a couple tablespoons of the chipotle to the pot and put the rest of the chipotle into an ice cube tray in the freezer so that I can pop the cubes into something else later. A little goes a long way with chipotle, so start small if you’re unsure about the heat.

I started this before noon so that it was ready by dinner. The slow cooker is a natural for beans because you don’t have to babysit a pot on the stove for a couple hours. But either way works just fine. Once the beans were tender, I took the lid off the slow cooker to reduce the liquid a bit. (The leftovers could be served as soup as there was more than enough liquid in there.) Seasoned with salt and called it a day. I have been told that sugar might be desirable with black-eyed peas as they have an earthy flavor that you might find more palatable if sweetened. To each his own.

Turnips Au Gratin

Meanwhile I had some turnips that had been sitting in the bottom of the fridge for a couple months, so I decided to turn them into an au gratin. You could slice them thinly by hand, but I used the slicing disk on my food processor. Used a mandoline twice in my life and decided I am way too clumsy to be trusted without adult supervision, so I gave mine away to a friend who is more graceful.

Greased the bottom of a casserole dish using some of the paper from my package of butter. Put a layer of turnips in there and sprinkled with some shredded mozzarella cheese that I had opened and needed to use. Any cheese you have available would be fine. A smoked gouda would have been divine.

You could season this up any number of ways. I decided to give it a little color with some paprika and sprinkle a little garlic powder and dried basil in there. (I don’t need to say salt, right? ) Repeated the process with another layer of sliced turnips, seasoning and cheese. Covered and put into the oven for about 20 minutes and then let it cook uncovered for another 15 minutes.

Pretty tasty and healthy for using almost exclusively pantry items. What do you think? Ready to try an unpopular bean? Let us know about your experience!

If you’re following my blog, you understand by now that I’m not doing recipes, right? I simply share my experience about cooking with the ingredients I have on hand so that you can liberate yourself and start cooking without recipes. However, I have been asked to start providing an ingredients list in case someone wants to use the same. So here goes:

Ingredients for Black-Eyed Peas:

• bacon
• onion
• celery
• bell pepper
• garlic
• carrot
• black-eyed peas
• canned chipotle

Ingredients for Turnips Au Gratin:

• turnips
• cheese (such as smoked gouda)
• seasonings (such as garlic powder, paprika, basil)

What else might you do with turnips? Please see Be a Lamb and Try for one suggestion.