Black-eyed Peas and Greens Soup

Even if it doesn't look or feel like fall outside in Southern California, we can make it feel like it inside!  This is my favorite time of the year, but it also makes me really homesick for the East Coast; the crisp air, the changing leaves, pumpkins and apples and cozy nights inside with apple cider and donuts.  Okay, so maybe I don't eat donuts anymore, but I really do miss an East Coast fall.  At least we can still have cozy nights inside with yummy soup like the one I made tonight!

It was supposed to be "Great Northern Beans and Greens Soup," but I forgot to prepare the dry beans ahead of time and had to use a can of whatever beans I had in the pantry -- black-eyed peas!  It actually turned out really well.  Black-eyed peas have a really hearty taste that adds well to soups like this.  I referred to a recipe in the Follow Your Heart cookbook by Janice Cook Knight, but I'll just go ahead and tell you how I made it.  (It's slightly different than the actual recipe.)

1 can black-eyed peas
4 cups vegetable stock
1/2 pound Swiss chard (from my garden still! yay!)
Sea salt
2 tablespoons olive oil
1/4 red onion, finely chopped
6 medium cloves garlic, minced
1/4 teaspoon dried rosemary
4 ounces tiny shell pasta
1/2 tablespoon Bragg's Liquid Aminos

Wash and trim chard and place in large pot with about half a cup of water.  Sprinkle some salt in the pot.  Bring to a boil, reduce heat and simmer until tender, about 4-5 minutes.  Drain chard over a bowl in order to save the liquid for the soup stock.  Let chard cool in strainer.

Start the broth to simmer.

Saute the onion, garlic and rosemary in oil over medium heat until they are softened.

Drain can of beans, rinse, and add to simmering broth on stove.

Add onion and garlic mixture to broth.

Add the reserve liquid from the chard.

Bring soup to boil, add pasta and cook until it is al dente.

Add Swiss chard and Bragg's.

Serve immediately and enjoy!  We also had a fresh spinach salad with tomatoes and cucumbers.  Very nutritious and delicious.  The soup is flavorful without any salt needed.  The black-eyed peas and Swiss chard both have very strong flavors which would make any soup extremely flavorful, I imagine.  Our first homemade soup of the fall is wonderful!