This kale black eyed peas soup with sausage and tortellini came out of my scramble to get a New Year’s dinner together this year. Out of that frenzy of digging through my freezer and pantry, this New Year’s soup was born. Often, I make this soup into a purple hull pea recipe with some easy changes. It is not only a New Year’s soup, you see, as this recipe is adaptable, and can be made any time of year. Check this list at the bottom for several more substitution ideas!
In my photographs here in this post, I used purple hull peas and baby spinach because that is what I had on hand when I thought to photograph my recipe.
You will love how adaptable this recipe is. You can use black eyed peas or purple hull peas.
Purple Hull Peas vs Black Eyed Peas
Purple hull peas are a cousin to black eyed peas as both are field peas. I can barely distinguish between the two as far as taste – especially with the canned peas. The black eyed peas have a little more earthy taste. Both peas need a good deal of seasoning of flavor marrying, in my opinion. The coloring is a bit different as black eyed peas are a bit more tan colored with a black eye. Purple hull peas are a little more purple-y with a pink eye.
For a Purple Hull Pea Recipe with Smoked Sausage (Great Summer Soup!)
If you grew up in the south, surely you have eaten purple hull peas. We have lots of fresh purple hull peas at our command thanks to purple hull pea patches around Arkansas and my parents’ backyard garden. I grew up picking purple hull peas at the local purple hull pea patch about 30 minutes from where I grew up. My parents still go every summer. In fact, my mom usually stocks our freezer with fresh and frozen (from fresh) purple hull peas in the summer. And I love eating fresh purple hull peas!
However, I prefer using Bush’s Purple Hull peas, frozen purple hull peas, or pre-cooked fresh purple hull peas for this purple hull pea recipe for soup. Fresh purple hull peas require a longer cook time (around 1 1/2 to two hours). If you do choose to use fresh purple hull peas, it would be best to use leftover peas that have already been cooked for a previous meal. This will save time but you might wait to add them at the end so they don’t get overly mushy.
For a Black Eyed Peas with Sausage Soup Recipe (Great New Year’s Soup!)
When making this soup recipe as a New Year’s soup or for any other day of the year, I definitely use canned black eyed peas just as with the purple hull pea recipe. Fresh black eyed peas require a soak and a longer cook time.
Yep, we are from the south, folks. New Year’s Day is supposed to be full of black eyed peas, greens, and pork. Typically, the greens are cabbage or turnip greens, but my family is strongly opposed to either of those. So spinach it is for us. And often the pork of choice here in the south is ham. But my family has ham at Christmas, and I usually all hammed out by New Year’s Eve.
By the way, did you know you don’t have to remove the stems from baby spinach before cooking? As long as the spinach leaves are young (baby spinach) and the stems are tender, there is no need to remove them. Everything will wilt down anyway. (But you will want to de-stem kale and collard greens if you use those.)
More Adaptations for This Purple Hull Pea Recipe Using the Same Measurements
This black eyed peas and kale soup recipe offers even more flexible swap outs.
- If you don’t like or don’t have kale, swap it for a different green like baby spinach. (I imagine you could also use collard greens since it is often an interchangeable green with the other two, though I have never tested it out myself.)
- If you don’t have smoked sausage, used two cups of chopped ham, or one pound of browned Italian sausage.
- You can use no sausage at all for a vegetarian black eyed pea soup.
- You can use cheese tortellini or a different type of pasta like rotini or elbow macaroni. (Granted, you will lose the cheese element that the cheese tortellini brings to this dish.)
- And when you don’t have diced tomatoes, use crushed tomatoes.
- When you don’t feel like making this soup in summer, make it winter.
- No tomato broth? Use chicken broth. (However, I can’t speak highly enough of Knorr’s Caldo de Tomate for an easy bouillon broth powder. It adds such a spice punch to any recipe you use it in. We like spice in our family. If you prefer a more mild broth, go with chicken broth.)
See how easy this black-eyed pea soup with sausage is?!
Black Eyed Peas Soup Recipe
Ingredients
- 1 package smoked link sausage
- 1/2 cup onion, chopped
- 2 cans black eyed peas can substitute purple hull peas
- 1 can diced tomatoes
- 1 tsp garlic powder
- 1 tsp black pepper
- 1 tsp Italian seasoning
- 1 can tomato paste small can
- 8 cups tomato broth made from Knorr's Caldo de Tomate bouillon
- 1 bag cheese tortellini, frozen
- 2 cups fresh spinach
Instructions
- Slice smoked sausage into 1/2 inch half-moon pieces.
- In dutch oven or large soup pot, allow sausage to brown on medium heat along with the onion – about 5 minutes.
- Add the two cans of peas, diced tomatoes, and spices.
- Stir in the tomato paste.
- Add the prepared tomato broth. (Optionally, to save time, you can add 8 cups of water and the bouillon powder to the water at the same time.
- Allow soup to simmer on medium heat for 10 minutes.
- Add the tortellini to the soup and bring to boil on medium-high heat for 7-8 minutes.
- Once tortellini begins to pop up to the top of the water line, add 2 cups of spinach. Allow the spinach to cook down for 2 minutes or so.
- Serve with cornbread or crackers.
Nutrition
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I hope you give this black eyed pea soup recipe a shot! Happy New Year!
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