Black Eyed Pea Soup

Did you know you're supposed to eat black eyed peas on New Year's Day for good luck? Well I don't really believe in luck but I thought it would be fun to come up with a New Year's tradition (that I ended up cooking/eating January 11th so hopefully that's good luck too!) Anyway, this soup was sooo good. Everyone ate it which is a great record for soup with toddlers. I used the crockpot but I'm sure you could make it on the stovetop too.

I got some of these chorizo sausage links on a special event day at Costco so I used that, but I'm sure that spicy italian sausage links or some fully-cooked spicy chicken sausages would work too. BUT I will say that those stinkin chorizo links were deeee-lish so try to find some!

Black Eyed Pea Soup

1 lb dried black eyed peas

1 lb spicy sausages

1 medium onion, chopped

1 c chopped carrot

3 stalks celery, chopped

1 bunch greens, collared or mustard, rough chopped

4-6 cloves garlic, minced

6 cups water & 6 tsp chicken base (or just use chicken broth if you're not cheap)

1 tsp salt-based cajun seasoning (I use Tony Chachere's Original Creole Seasoning, it's the best)

2 bay leaves

lots of pepper

The night before: cook your sausages and slice. Soak the black eyed peas. The next morning: rinse the peas and toss them in the crockpot with everything else. Cook on high 6 hours, or low all day. (Note: if you can't find collared or mustard greens (P.S. I prefer mustard) you can buy a can of greens, drain them well and stir them in at the last minute) Serve with some good ole southern corn bread.