Vegetable black-eyed peas soup (Instant & Stovetop)

Craving a hearty and wholesome soup? This Vegetable Black-Eyed Peas Soup combines tender peas and fresh veggies in a flavorful broth, making it a perfect one-pot meal. Follow my easy recipe for a comforting bowl every time!

This vegan and gluten-free soup is perfect for making on New Year's Day.

Ingredients

Black-eyed peas: I prefer the stovetop method to make this black-eyed peas soup with pre-cooked or canned black-eyed peas. If using dried black-eyed peas, Instant pot is your best friend. And as we use lots of veggies in this soup, soak the black-eyed peas for at least 4 hours so that the cooking time of peas and veggies matches.

Veggies: In this recipe, I used carrots, beans, bell peppers, and tomatoes. Other veggies like potatoes, sweet potatoes, pumpkin, beetroot, radish will also go well in this soup. You could even use mushrooms and sweet corn. These add a nice earthy flavor to the soup. 

Spices: This soup is flavored with plain oregano and ground cumin. And for spiciness, I used red chili powder. You can also use freshly ground black pepper or paprika powder to make this soup.

Stovetop Instructions

• Heat a thick-bottomed pan and add oil to it.

• Once it is hot, add bay leaves, chopped garlic, chopped onions to the pan, and cook them for 3 to 4 minutes.

• Add chopped carrots and beans to the pan and cook for 4 to 5 minutes on medium flame.

• Then goes finely chopped tomatoes and let it cook further for a couple of more minutes.

• Add finely chopped bell peppers and stir it once.

• To this veggies mixture, add spice powders - red chili powder, ground cumin, ground coriander, dried oregano, and salt. Mix everything well and make sure that the veggies mixture is not sticking to the pan.

• Now add cooked black-eyed peas and water to the pan.

• Stir it once and adjust the salt accordingly. Let the black-eyed peas soup simmer on a medium flame for around 12 to 15 minutes.

• We like veggies to be a little crunchy, so I simmered it for 12 minutes. If you want softer veggies, simmer the soup for 20 minutes. You can add more water to adjust the consistency. And the delicious vegetable black-eyed peas soup is ready to serve!

Instant pot Instructions

If you are making this soup with already cooked black-eyed peas, you need not pressure cook the peas again and simmer the soup using saute mode. However, I prefer the instant pot method to make this soup with dried black-eyed beans.

• Soak the black-eyed peas for at least 3 to 4 hours. I recommend soaking peas as we use veggies in this black-eyed peas soup. Veggies will overcook if we directly use the dried black-eyed peas.
• Drain and rinse the soaked black-eyed peas and keep them aside.
• Start the Instant pot in saute mode.
• Once it is hot, add oil, bay leaves, chopped garlic, chopped onions, and let them fry for a couple of minutes,
• Now add chopped carrots, beans, tomatoes, and bell peppers.
• Mix the veggies and let them cook for a couple of more minutes.
• Then goes the spice powders - red chili powder, dried oregano, ground cumin, coriander powder, and salt.
• Stir it well. Add drained black-eyed peas and water to the Instant pot inner pot. 
• Close the Instant pot with its lid and start it in manual or pressure cook mode. Pressure cook the soup for 8 minutes on HIGH pressure.
• Once the instant pot finishes cooking, wait for 10 minutes and carefully release the pressure manually.
• Stir it once, and the delicious vegetable black-eyed peas soup is ready to serve!

Recipe Notes & Variations

• I used fresh tomatoes to make this black-eyed beans soup. You can use canned tomatoes or tomato puree also. 
• Don't want to include tomatoes? You can safely skip tomatoes and garnish the soup with lime juice just before serving. 
• Though this soup is quite filling on its own, I sometimes add potatoes or sweet potatoes to make this soup a complete meal.
• Want to make it more colorful? Add leafy greens like spinach, collard greens, or kale at the end and simmer it for 3 to 4 more minutes.
• This recipe used only dried oregano. To make this soup more flavorful, you can use other herbs like cilantro, mint, dill leaves, parsley, thyme. If you are using dried herbs, add them along with spice powders. Else, garnish the soup with fresh herbs.
• Want to make the soup more flavorful? Instead of water, use either vegetable broth or chicken broth for cooking the soup.
• To make the creamy black-eyed peas soup, you can replace 1 cup of water with 1 cup of coconut milk.

Serving & Storage

This vegan black-eyed peas soup is quite filling, and you can enjoy this meal as it is. However, cornbread or toasted bread is a good side dish for this soup.

This vegan vegetable black-eyed peas soup keeps well for 8 hours at room temperature. You can store it for a couple of days in the refrigerator and for up to three months in the freezer.

I usually store the cooked black-eyed peas in the freezer and make this refreshing soup when needed.

You will like my other black-eyed peas recipes on this blog as you are here.

Instant pot black-eyed peas curry

Black-eyed peas salad

How to cook black-eyed peas

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Recipe