From Texas Caviar to Hoppin’ John, black-eyed peas are the star of the show this time of year . It is said that eating these little beauties on New Year’s Day will bring much prosperity for the year ahead and if you add tomatoes, good health too. Add collard greens (to represent the almighty dollar) and your financial future is set!
As superstitions go, this isn’t a bad one as black-eyed peas and collard greens are both nutrient-dense foods.
One cup of black-eyed peas has: 160 calories, 8.2 g of fibre, 5.2 g of protein and 263 mcg of folate, 53% of your daily required amount. All that fibre acts like a little toothbrush through the colon – most people don’t get enough.
One cup of cooked collard greens has only 49 calories, 5 g of fibre and 4 g of protein. It is extremely high in Vitamin K, Vitamin A and Vitamin C, plus a host of other nutrients. Collards are from the Brassica family, related to cabbage, Swiss chard, broccoli, cauliflower, kale and Brussels sprouts. These cruciferous veggies have sulfur-containing compounds known as glucosinolates which may reduce cancer risk.
Get all of that goodness inside of you with this spicy Creole-inspired dish. It’s a perfect food any day in January!
Creole Black-Eyed Peas with Garlicky Collard Greens
Ingredients
- 2 onions diced
- 1 green bell pepper seeded and diced
- 1 jalapeno pepper seeded and diced
- 2 stalks celery diced
- 3-4 cloves garlic minced
- 2 cups dried black-eyed peas rinsed and soaked overnight (8-10 hours)
- 6 cups vegetable broth or water
- 28 oz canned diced tomatoes fire-roasted preferred, but regular are fine
- 2 bay leaves
- 1 tsp dried oregano
- 1 tsp dried thyme
- 1 tsp salt or to taste
- 1/2 tsp black pepper
- 1/4 tsp cayenne pepper or to taste
- 1/4-1/2 tsp Liquid Smoke
- 1 tbsp Louisiana-style hot sauce optional
For the Collard Greens
- 1 bunch collard greens
- 1 pint cherry or grape tomatoes cut into halves
- 1/4 cup water or vegetable broth
- 3 cloves garlic minced
- 2 tbsp coconut aminos or soy sauce
Instructions
- Heat a 5L/5QT pot to medium-high. Add a little water to the pot and sauté the onions, garlic, and celery until softened. Add the rest of the ingredients except the liquid smoke. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat, cover and simmer for approximately 1.5 hours or until the peas are soft. At that point add the liquid smoke, starting with 1/4 tsp (as it is pretty potent and can destroy the dish if too much is added). Cook an additional few minutes and serve, hot.
For the Collard Greens
- Remove and discard stems and centre ribs of collard greens. Cut leaves into 1-inch pieces.
- Heat 12" skillet to Medium-High
- Add 1 tbsp of water (or broth, if using) plus the garlic to the pan, stirring for just a few seconds. Add the chopped collards, cherry tomatoes and remaining water to pan, gently sautéing until greens are tender but not mushy . Sprinkle with coconut aminos or soy sauce to taste. Give a final stir and serve with the black-eyed peas over brown rice.
Fasting Blood Sugar: 8.2 (originally 10.5)
to shred countless heads of cabbage, by hand, enough to fill a rain barrel. They salted it, packed it in and kept it in the cold cellar. We had fresh sauerkraut “on demand” for the next year. It was great fun watching my nephews’ reactions as their grandpa removed the top layer of ferment “scum” (“EWWWW!!!”) to reach the fresh sauerkraut below. I make sauerkraut exactly the same way today, except in far smaller quantities. 
I sample by moving a bit of the foamy stuff with my spoon and testing the brew below.
two to get more bubbly. It’s important to “burp” the jars at least once a day to avoid explosions from the build-up of carbon dioxide. I used one mason jar and one jar with a clip top (pictured).
Using centrifugal force, these juicers spin the pulp at high speeds to extract the juice. They can be loud and are not great at juicing leafy vegetables, such as spinach or kale, sprouts or wheatgrass.
Masticating Juicers – 
These are known as the “cold-press” juicers. Produce goes down a tube where it is squeezed and crushed at a slower speed with the juice exiting the bottom of the tube.
Although some can and do fast on juice for long periods with excellent results, I would never advocate exclusively juicing for a very long term. A 30 or 60-day juice fast is a pretty drastic measure and probably long enough for even the most hard-core juicer. It does reset your mind and body as one would reboot a glitchy computer. The sense of well-being is invigorating and will carry you towards a healthier path for some time. If you do start to slip back into old patterns, a short juice fast of a few days serves as quick reboot to get back on track. Ultimately, however, you don’t need to “fast” at all – just include fresh-pressed juice as part of your lifestyle. The super-boost of easily-absorbed nutrition always feels fantastic. I now try to include one a day on most days. Nature’s multi-vitamin.
