Vegan Black Eyed Peas

November 2038. Marco's team made the playoffs and won the first round. I was there. His father, fifty-eight years old, formerly of fifteen championships, standing in the visitor bleachers at a 4A school in Colorado, watching his son pace the sideline in the cold November air. The game was close throughout — tied at fourteen with four minutes left, Marco called a timeout that I would have called at the same moment for the same reasons, and watching that was strange and beautiful, like watching a habit I'd passed on without knowing I was passing it on.

They won on a field goal in the final minute. Marco came to midfield for the handshake and then turned and found his players and raised both fists and the players came to him and it was everything. It's always everything when it works.

I stood in the bleachers and I thought about my first playoff win — a 4A game in 2009 at my first school, a game I barely managed, a game I stayed up until two in the morning after trying to understand how we'd won. Twenty-nine years ago. Marco is thirty-three. Ruben would be forty-five. Time is a river and we're all in it and some of us made it further downstream than others and that's not fair and it's also just the river.

I drove home and made red chile enchiladas because I needed to do something with my hands and because it was November and because someone deserved enchiladas. Lisa said: you made the championship enchiladas. I said: it's close enough. She said: will he mind? I said: he'd better not. We drove to Marco's apartment with the pan and ate at his kitchen table after ten o'clock and it was exactly correct.

I didn’t have a recipe that night — I had a feeling, and I had dried beans I’d been meaning to use, and I had the particular kind of restlessness that only comes after something you’ve waited a long time to see finally happen. These Vegan Black Eyed Peas are what I reach for when I need my hands busy and the kitchen warm: low and slow, smoky and grounding, the kind of pot that fills an apartment and says something good happened here tonight. Marco might have expected enchiladas, but a bowl of these at a table after ten o’clock on a November night turned out to be exactly right too.

Prep Time: 15 min | Cook Time: 1 hr | Total Time: 1 hr 15 min | Servings: 6

Ingredients

1 lb dried black eyed peas, rinsed and sorted
1 medium yellow onion, diced
4 cloves garlic, minced
1 green bell pepper, diced
2 stalks celery, sliced
1 can (14.5 oz) diced tomatoes
4 cups vegetable broth
2 cups water
1 tsp smoked paprika
1 tsp ground cumin
1/2 tsp dried thyme
1/2 tsp garlic powder
1/4 tsp cayenne pepper (or to taste)
2 tbsp olive oil
1 tsp kosher salt, plus more to taste
1/2 tsp black pepper
2 bay leaves
3 cups fresh spinach or chopped collard greens (optional)
Hot sauce, for serving

Instructions

Soak the peas. Place rinsed black eyed peas in a large bowl and cover with cold water by at least 2 inches. Soak for 6–8 hours or overnight. Drain and rinse before using. For a quick soak, cover with water in a pot, bring to a boil for 2 minutes, remove from heat, and let sit 1 hour, then drain.
Sauté the aromatics. Heat olive oil in a large heavy-bottomed pot or Dutch oven over medium heat. Add onion, bell pepper, and celery. Cook, stirring occasionally, until softened and translucent, about 6–8 minutes. Add garlic and cook another 1 minute until fragrant.
Add spices. Stir in smoked paprika, cumin, thyme, garlic powder, and cayenne. Toast the spices in the oil for 30 seconds, stirring constantly, to bloom their flavor.
Add peas and liquid. Add the drained black eyed peas, diced tomatoes (with their juices), vegetable broth, water, bay leaves, salt, and pepper. Stir to combine.
Simmer until tender. Bring to a boil over high heat, then reduce heat to medium-low. Cover partially and simmer, stirring occasionally, for 45–55 minutes, until the peas are fully tender and the broth has thickened slightly. Add more water or broth if needed to keep the peas submerged.
Finish with greens. If using spinach or collard greens, stir them in during the last 5 minutes of cooking and cook until wilted. Remove bay leaves. Taste and adjust salt, pepper, and cayenne as needed.
Serve. Ladle into bowls over rice or with crusty bread. Serve with hot sauce on the side.

Nutrition (per serving)

Vegan Black Eyed Peas — The Celebration You Make With Your Hands