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SusanV I'm SusanV, and I love good food. Join me as I create delicious dishes made with whole foods and without a lot of processed fat and sugar. Want to know more? Check out my FAQs, look through my recipe index, or get inside info on Facebook. Like what you see? Then subscribe to receive email updates. But above all, enjoy!


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Tuesday, August 08, 2006

Black-eyed Pea Gumbo

Yesterday was the first day of school, and I don't know who was more excited, my daughter or I. She's in a new school and riding the bus for the first time, and, best of all, her best friend is in her class. She was so eager to start that yesterday she woke up at 4:30, got dressed, made her own lunch, and ate breakfast all before waking us up at 5:15. If this level of enthusiasm persists, I might be able to start sleeping until 6:00!

Since we were all involved in back-to-school preparations this weekend, I cooked only fast food--bean burritos, mac and "cheese"--for the past few nights . Last night I got back into the kitchen for some "real" cooking and used some lovely okra that I bought in Louisiana to make this combination of gumbo and Hoppin' John: I pressure cooked 1 cup of black-eyed peas in 3 cups of water and added them to this scrumptious stew of okra and tomatoes. The okra as well as the onions give this spicy dish a slight sweetness that you wouldn't expect, but I found it quite delicious.

Black-eyed Pea Gumbo

Black-eyed Pea Gumbo

2 medium onions, diced
1 bell pepper (any color), chopped
2 ribs celery, chopped
1 tbsp. tomato paste
1 tbsp. minced garlic
4 cups vegetable broth, water, or a combination
2 15-ounce cans diced tomatoes
1 pound okra, tops removed and sliced
1 1/2 tsp. thyme
3 bay leaves
1/4 tsp. cayenne pepper
1/8 tsp. black pepper
1/4 tsp. garlic powder
1 tsp. oregano
1-2 tsp. chopped chipotle peppers (canned in adobo)
1/4 tsp. Liquid Smoke (optional)
2 1/2 cups cooked black-eyed peas, plus cooking liquid (1 cup dried black-eyed peas cooked in 3 cups water)*
salt to taste (optional)

*You can use canned black-eyed peas--use 2 16-ounce cans, rinse them first and add some extra water or broth to the gumbo.

Heat a large, non-stick stock pot or Dutch oven. Add the onions and cook, stirring regularly, until they begin to brown, about 8 minutes. Add the bell pepper and celery, and cook for 3 more minutes. Add the tomato paste and garlic and cook, stirring, for 2 more minutes.

Add the remaining ingredients and cook over medium heat until okra is done and mixture has thickened, about 45-55 minutes. Add more water as needed--this will be thicker than a soup but still have a good amount of broth. Serve over freshly cooked brown rice and add hot sauce at the table.

Makes 6-8 servings. For 6 servings, each serving contains: 153 Calories (kcal); 1 g Total Fat; (4% calories from fat); 9 g Protein; 30 g Carbohydrate; trace Cholesterol; 53 mg Sodium; 9 g Fiber; 111 mg Calcium



I'm submitting this healthy dish to this week's round-up of Antioxidant-Rich Recipes at Sweetnicks. Eat your okra; it's good for you! It's low in calories and high in calcium and folate. If you're trying to lower your cholesterol, adding some okra to your diet could help: The "sticky" type of soluble fiber in okra helps bind the cholesterol in your digestive tract and sweep it out of your body.

And truly, once it's cooked, okra is NOT slimy!

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15 Comments:

Blogger Kalyn said...

Susan that's cute that your daughter is so excited to start school. I don't know if you know that I'm a fourth grade teacher. (Don't tell her, but the teachers are not *quite* that excited!)

11:25 AM, August 08, 2006  
Blogger SusanV said...

Kalyn, that's a coincidence because my daughter just started 4th grade. I have to say that she's a lot more excited about school than I ever was! I taught (college) for about 16 years, and I always dreaded the start of the new year. That's a big reason why I don't teach any more. :-)

12:25 PM, August 08, 2006  
Blogger Urban Vegan said...

what a gorgeous photo. looks fab.

4:29 PM, August 08, 2006  
Blogger Melody said...

Oh Susan, that looks sooo good. You have such wonderful photography skills... I need to learn to use my camera more..

I will definitely be making this recipe, but probably not until fall. I admit, I am afraid of Okra, but I know that if you cook it long enough it's good.

It's so cute that your daughter is so excited about school.

5:00 PM, August 08, 2006  
Blogger Webly said...

I've always been weary of using bean juice for soup bases because someone, somewhere, once upon a time, that the gassiness of the beans...something, something, something. Clearly I have nothing to go on here. Do you ever have any gassiness problems when using the bean stock?

I wish okra was cheap up here in the NW. Oh well, atleast we have the berries and cherries!

BTW, That photograph is beautiful!

7:10 PM, August 08, 2006  
Blogger funwithyourfood said...

school already? it seems way too early
wow where has the summer gone?

teddy

11:57 PM, August 08, 2006  
Blogger Harmonia said...

Question about Gumbo or Gumbo seasoning...

I was looking for file powder. Found out that it's also listed as gumbo file powder or even sassafras powder sometimes. If one were to by Gumbo File Powder...that's vegan right? For some reason I think of gumbo being meat-related. *grin*

7:56 AM, August 09, 2006  
Blogger primaryconsumer said...

Wow, 4:30 is quite early! The gumbo looks so good, and as soon as I get my hands on some good okra I'm going to make it.

5:12 PM, August 09, 2006  
Blogger Harmonia said...

http://harmonia.bloggoing.com

Here is my new link. Hope to see you there soon! My old link will still be active. I am going to keep my blogroll there and use it as a back up but my daily updates will take place at the above location.

8:40 AM, August 10, 2006  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

EXCELLENT recipe- we made this last night with the okra and tomatoes that came with our Community Supported Agriculture delivery. Easily done with black eyed peas in the pressure cooker. If you are looking for a healthful okra recipe, I highly recoomend this.

Love your site! Great choice of ETL recipes.

7:55 AM, September 02, 2006  
Anonymous Krista said...

I made this gumbo today and it is wonderful!! Thanks so much for the recipe. I made a few adjustments for my tastes and to use what I had on hand. I put in the cayenne pepper only and did not use the chitpole peppers. I don't have "liquid smoke" but may get some to try next time I make this gumbo - and there will definitely be a next. Also, having been raised in the rural northeast, I haven't cooked with okra so I didn't have any fresh or frozen on hand. I just increased the amount of celery and added lots of sliced carrots.

2:54 PM, October 29, 2006  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

I made this today and it is fantastic. I followed it pretty closely except that I added 3 cut up Tofurky Italian sausages, so it had more fat than the recipe would normally have. We served it over brown basmati rice. This would be great for company. Thank you for the recipe!

9:32 PM, April 03, 2007  
Blogger Andria said...

I made this today with fresh black eyed peas from the farmers market. It was so delicious! My omni family all loved this dish.

4:32 PM, August 19, 2007  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

I brought this dish to a Kentucky Derby party my husband & I were invited to. Everyone commented that they liked it, me too. Only one thing I had to add was oil in the pan to cook the onions because they started to burn and the recipe didn't ask for any oil. Otherwise, it looked beautiful, tasted delicious and was the healthiest food item at the party!

12:25 PM, May 04, 2008  

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