Spicy Black-Eyed Peas
from Tyler Florence's Dinner At My Place

Dinner At My Place

3 cups dried black-eyed peas
2 slices thick-cut bacon
1/4 bunch fresh thyme sprigs (4 sprigs)
2 tomatoes, quartered
5 garlic cloves, peeled
5 dried red chiles
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
1 quart chicken broth
4 green onions, chopped
1/4 cup chopped fresh cilantro
1 lemon, juice only
Extra-virgin olive oil
Cilantro sprigs, for garnish

Combine dried peas, bacon, thyme, tomatoes, garlic, and chiles in a large pot. Season with salt and black pepper and pour chicken broth over top. Place over medium-low heat and simmer for 1 hour, until peas are tender.

Drain cooked pea mixture, reserving the cooking liquid and discarding the thyme. Remove the bacon slices, tomatoes, garlic, and chiles from the cooked peas, set aside. (Reserve chiles for garnish.) Cut up bacon slices and fold back into the peas with green onion, cilantro, and lemon juice. Place the cooking liquid, the tomatoes, and the garlic in a blender and puree. Dress the peas with the puree and give it a final season with salt and black pepper. Serve with a drizzle of oil. Garnish with reserved chiles and the cilantro sprigs.


2 slices thick-cut bacon, sliced
2 cloves garlic, peeled
5 dried red chiles, broken up
2 bay leaves
1 lb dried black-eyed peas
1 quart low-sodium chicken stock
2 tomatoes, quartered
1/4 bunch fresh thyme, leaves removed
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
1 lemon, juiced
4 green onions, chopped
1/4 cup chopped fresh cilantro leaves

In a large pot over medium heat, add bacon and render until crisp. Remove the bacon to the paper towel-lined plate. To the same pot with rendered bacon fat, add the garlic, chiles, bay leaves, and dried peas and stir to combine. Pour in the chicken stock and add the tomatoes. Simmer over medium-low heat for 1 hour or until peas are tender.

Transfer about 1 to 2 cups of the peas to a blender and puree until smooth. Place the blended peas back into the pot and stir to incorporate. Add the thyme leaves and season with salt and pepper, to taste. Continue to cook for another 15 minutes. Place in a serving dish and dress the peas with the lemon juice, green onions, cilantro and bacon before serving.

My combined version:

*I used chicken broth.
*I used about 10 dried red chiles.
*I did not use bay leaves.
*I used a small amount of dried thyme, no fresh thyme.
*I fried bacon, using the grease when I cooked my beans.
*I also put two pieces of bacon in the pot during cooking, but discarded this at the end, and used my crisp fried bacon to blend back in.

After they cooked down about 1 and a half hours, I had to use the online directions because the tomatoes had cooked down and were not that easy to identify and remove. I took 2 spoonfuls of the mixture, pureed, and blended back in with the lemon juice, cilantro, and bacon, as both recipes stated.