Black Eyed Peas Soup with Pancetta

A plate with black eyed peas soup, served with bread and garnished bread.

A rich and flavorful Mediterranean soup with black eyed peas and pancetta. This soup is not only perfect for New Year's because of tradition, but also on any cold winter day! It's so comforting!!

Course Main Course

Cuisine Mediterranean

Keyword Black Eyed Peas Soup

Prep Time 15

Cook Time 1

Total Time 1 15

Servings servings

Calories 318kcal

Author Sonila

Equipment

1 Dutch Oven

Ingredients

2 cups black eyed peas
8 ozs pancetta
1 red onion
1-2 carrots
4 celery sticks
1 red bell pepper
4 garlic cloves
2 tbsps olive oil
2 cups crushed tomatoes
1 cup fresh parsley
1 tsp sea salt
0.5 tsp black pepper
1 tsp oregano
1 tsp dry thyme
0.5 tsp red pepper flakes optional, add more for spicy soup
1 bay leaf
2 tbsps red wine vinegar
4 cups hot water

Instructions

Soak dry black eyed peas in water overnight. Rinse and drain on a colander when ready to cook.
Dice carrots, onion and celery and set them aside. Peel and mince the garlic cloves. Dice red bell pepper too. Wash and drain the parsley. Usually I divide a quarter of the parsley bunch for garnishing at the end.
Heat Dutch Oven for a minute or so. Add olive oil then add pancetta. Cook while stirring for few minutes.
Add onion and garlic and cook until both are translucent and aromatic. Keep stirring occasionally with a wooden spoon to avoid anything sticking to the bottom of the Dutch Oven.
Add carrots, celery and red pepper. Continue stirring occasionally so all vegetables cook and soften and flavors mix together.
Finally add drained black eyed peas and crushed tomatoes. Add all the seasonings: oregano, thyme, red pepper flakes, black pepper, bay leaf, parsley and black pepper. As per salt, you can add it right at this point or when soup has finished cooking.
Add 4 cups of water (I like to boil water in a kettle before adding so to shorten cooking time).
Mix everything, lower heat to medium and cover Dutch Oven with a lid. Let cook for about 45 minutes. Check occasionally. Then lower heat to low and let cook for another 15 minutes.
Add red wine vinegar and garnish with fresh parsley right before serving. Also, you can add some more fragrant olive oil to your individual soup bowl too. Enjoy:)

Video

Notes

Leftovers: you can store them in refrigerator for few days. Also, you can freeze this soup in an airtight container.
You can use fresh lemon juice instead or red wine vinegar.
My family back in Albania loved to serve a winter salad with this soup, which usually involved pickled green tomatoes or cabbage etc. Salad have olive oil and red wine vinegar, sometimes they'd scoop the olive oil/vinegar combo from the salad plate and drizzle some of that over the soup bowl. It's really amazing, if you like that flavor combination. I know not everyone is a fan, but those that love it swear by it!

Nutrition