Boston Black-Eyed Peas

I love the taste of black-eyed peas but rarely ever use or eat them until I found this quick and easy recipe from New Recipes from Moosewood Restaurant. This dish is packed with flavor and stands well all on it's own. I ate it with French bread, which was fine, but could really use something heartier like whole wheat or rye. Using canned beans will save you about 15 minutes.

Makes 4 servings
Cooking Time: 25 minutes

Ingredients
-4 cups canned black-eyed peas, drained and saving the black-eye pea juice
-1 T butter or vegetable oil
-2 garlic cloves, minced or pressed
-1 cup chopped onions
-1 cup chopped fresh beet greens, collards, chard or spinach (optional, but definitely use!)
-1/4 c Tamari soy sauce
-1/3 c molasses
-1 tsp dried mustard or a good quality prepared mustard

Preparation
Saute garlic and onions in the butter or oil until the onions are just translucent. If you choose to add the greens, mix them into the onions and continue to saute until the greens wilt. Mix together soy sauce, molasses, and mustard and set aside. Drain the black-eyed Peas, saving a cup of liquid.

Add drained peas to sauteed onion mixture and the molasses-soy sauce. Cover and simmer on very low heat for 10 to 15 minutes, stirring frequently. During this simmer there is some danger of sticking or scorching, so watch closely. I, for some reason, never had this problem. Maybe because I used a non-stick pan?

Notes
I think it's really important to use a high quality soy sauce because it is one of the main flavoring agents for this dish, so don' t use the cheap stuff that is high fructose corn syrup based. Also, I really chopped up the spinach. I think the recipe called for bigger pieces, hence watching for the wilting action, but I personally liked it really chopped up.