Slow Cooked Black Eyed Peas

When I hit up the Waverly Farmers' Market last Saturday, I found myself drawn to the line with all the beans in coolers. You might know that one: fresh lima beans, black beans, navy beans, black eyed peas, that sort of thing. About $2.50 later I was on my way with a pound of black eyed peas.

I don't eat them so I have little experience in cooking them. But I found a few good recipes for cooking them, fresh or dried, stove top or slow cooked. I was drawn to this one from About.com's Southern food section, "Fresh Black-Eyed Peas with Bacon and Fire-Roasted Tomatoes". I had to adapt it for 1 pound instead of 1 1/2, but it still required my stir frying half a package of bacon, a medium yellow onion, a whole red bell pepper and a stalk of celery in a big cast-iron skillet. I added these and a cup of water to the slow cooker and cooked it on low for about 7 hours. After that came small amounts of chili powder, dried oregano, salt and pepper and a 14 oz can of tomatoes, all cooked low for about 2 hours more. With the cornbread I made last week it was great. In fact, I had to get a second helping.


But oh WOW - all that bacon! It doesn't look like more than there was. Seriously: there was that much!