Black-eyed pea soup with collards and bacon is the kind of old-fashioned Southern comfort that tastes smoky, lucky, and downright prosperous-whether you eat it on New Year's Day or on a Tuesday when the budget feels thin and life demands something hearty.
Table of Contents
- ❤️ Why this smoky black-eyed pea soup is a New Year's tradition
- 📖 Recipe
- 🧾 Ingredients for old-fashioned black-eyed pea soup
- 🔪 How to make hearty New Year's black-eyed pea soup
- 👩🏻🍳 Answers to your questions
- More cozy Southern recipes you'll want to try
- The last word from my slightly chaotic Southern kitchen
- 💬 Comments
This quick 30-minute pot is loaded with smoky black-eyed peas, spicy tomatoes and chiles, tender collard greens, and enough bacon to make the ancestors nod in approval. Cozy, protein-packed, cheap in the best way, and full of those classic "good luck and good fortune" ingredients that make this a Southern staple year after year.
❤️ Why this smoky black-eyed pea soup is a New Year's tradition
- It's loaded with the holy trinity of Southern luck: peas for coins, greens for cash, and pork for "don't test me, I'm thriving this year."
- Smoky bacon + spicy tomatoes = the kind of flavor that bullies your resolutions into submission before January even gets smug.
- Takes 30 minutes, because no one is starting a new year chained to a stove like some Dickens orphan.
- Stretches a budget like it's training for the prosperity Olympics - feeds everybody, offends no one, tastes like money magic.
- It's cozy, it's chaotic, it's old-fashioned, and it absolutely works. Even the ancestors clutch their pearls and say, "Well, damn."
Don't wait until New Year's Day to have it - it's perfect any time of year. SO good served with a side of buttermilk cornbread!
Snag the free black-eyed pea soup Kitchen Cheat Sheet-your little talisman against burnt dinners, wrong measurements, and that "why is this boiling over like a demon awakening?" moment. With Faqs, tips, and other extras, it keeps you organized, confident, and just feral enough to run your kitchen like the CEO of Cozy Chaos you are.
📖 Recipe
Old-Fashioned Black Eyed Pea Soup
Print Pin Recipe Rate RecipeIngredients
- ½ pound bacon
- 2 medium onions, chopped
- 3 garlic cloves, peeled and smashed
- 48 ounces black eyed peas, 3 cans, or 1 lb of dried (soaked overnight), or 1 pound fresh
- 28 ounces diced tomatoes & green chilies, 2 cans
- 1 quart chicken stock
- 14 ounces collard greens, cooked and drained (optional)
Instructions
Stovetop
- Cut bacon into small pieces and fry until crisp.
- Remove the bacon from the pan and set aside, reserving the bacon grease in the pan.
- Add the chopped onions and garlic and cook until almost tender.
- Add the remaining ingredients except the bacon.
- Simmer for 15 minutes.
- Add the bacon just before serving.
- Add a generous spoonful of the cooked greens to each bowl before adding the soup. This way people who don't like greens can enjoy this recipe as well.
Slow Cooker
- Cut bacon into small pieces and fry until crisp. Set aside.
- Add all of the ingredients except the bacon to the slow cooker. Stir in a tablespoon or two of the bacon grease.
- Simmer for 8 to 10 hours or until black eyed peas are cooked and flavors have blended.
- Add the bacon just before serving.
Notes
- Be sure to drain and rinse canned black eyed peas or beans really well before using
- Use V-8 juice or vegetable stock instead of chicken broth
- Make this vegetarian by leaving out the bacon and use vegetable stock or V-8 instead of chicken stock.
- Substitute any kind of beans for the black eyed peas - kidney beans, navy beans, pinto beans... etc.
Nutrition Facts
Nutrition information is estimated as a courtesy. If using for medical purposes, please verify information using your own nutritional calculator. Percent Daily Values are based on a 2000 calorie diet.
This recipe has been tested several times. If you choose to use other ingredients, or change the technique in some way, the results may not be the same.
Love this recipe?
Subscribe to the free membership group and never miss another recipe!
🧾 Ingredients for old-fashioned black-eyed pea soup
These ingredients may look simple, but don't be fooled-they come together like a smoky Southern family reunion. Black-eyed peas for luck, collards for cash, bacon for sheer audacity. Nothing fancy, nothing fussy… just the kind of pantry-friendly, budget-saving magic that feeds a crowd and keeps your year pointed toward prosperity.
- Black-eyed peas - Canned, fresh, or dried-use whatever you've got. If you're working with dried or fresh, make sure they're fully cooked unless you enjoy chaos and crunchy disappointment. If you start with canned black-eyed peas you only need to rinse them before using and your soup will be ready in about 15 minutes!
- Ro*Tel tomatoes & green chiles - Original if you're civilized, extra spicy if you enjoy feeling alive. Prefer mildness? Use plain diced tomatoes and pretend you meant to.
- Bacon - The smoky backbone of this whole operation. Don't skip it unless you want the ancestors to sigh dramatically.
- Chicken stock - Gives the broth that rich, old-fashioned Southern flavor that whispers, "Prosperity is coming, baby."
- Onion - Because every respectable soup starts with onion. That's just culinary law.
- Garlic - Smash it, toss it in, and let it work its witchy, aromatic charm.
- Collard greens - Optional… but only if you hate fortune, flavor, or pleasing your grandma's ghost.
🔪 How to make hearty New Year's black-eyed pea soup
If you start with canned black-eyed peas you only need to rinse them before using and your soup will be ready in about 15 minutes!
- Cook the bacon in a heavy pot until the fat renders and the pieces hit that perfect crispy "don't-you-dare-eat-one-yet" stage.
- Fish out the bacon and set it aside. Leave the grease in the pot-this is Southern cooking, not a diet regime.
- Toss in the chopped onions and sauté until they soften and your kitchen starts smelling like you're a southern grandma.
- Add the black-eyed peas, tomatoes, stock, and seasonings-everything except the bacon. Simmer 15 minutes while pretending this is effort.
- If your household is collard-divided, put the greens in the bowl first then add the soup so the greens-haters don't riot.
- Ladle in the soup, crown it with crispy bacon, and accept your role as the bringer of luck, flavor, and general superiority.
👩🏻🍳 Answers to your questions
Got questions? This soup has been around long enough to hear them all, so let's get you sorted before the bacon gets cold. If you still have questions check the cheat sheet or ask in the comments.
Sure! You'll want to leave out the bacon and use vegetable stock instead of chicken stock. I'd add a little extra onion and garlic to make up for the bacon flavor.
You can actually use any kind of bean. Black-eyed peas have an earthy flavor that some people don't care for. Try -
*Kidney beans (but if you have these I recommend the Cowboy soup!)
*Black beans
*Pinto beans
*Cannellini beans
*Lentils
*Purple hull peas
*Navy beans
*Red beans
Any other dried legume will work fine!
Turnip greens, mustard greens, kale - whatever Southern greenery is lurking in your fridge.
More cozy Southern recipes you'll want to try
If this smoky pot of luck-and-bacon made your heart flutter, wait till you meet its cousins. These are the dishes that keep the kitchen warm, the budget calm, and the ancestors nodding like, "Yes, baby, that's the stuff."
If you're already smitten with this smoky black-eyed pea soup, you might as well wander deeper into the cozy Southern kitchen. Start with my Black-Eyed Pea, Smoked Sausage, and Cabbage Soup-a hearty, smoky bowl that tastes like prosperity with a side of successful CEO energy. Or bring the café home with Copycat Panera Black Bean Soup, creamy and comforting without sacrificing the grocery budget.
Want something lighter? Weight Watchers Cabbage Soup keeps things veggie-forward and kinder to your waistband.
For full-on New Year's tradition, let the Slow Cooker Collard Greens bubble away into tender, smoky perfection-greens for money, remember-and pair them with Coca-Cola Ham, that sweet, sticky showstopper that doubles down on the "pork equals progress" superstition. Together they're the classic Southern combo for luck, cash flow, and starting the year like you mean business.
If it's too hot outside for soup try this black-eyed pea salad, instead.
The last word from my slightly chaotic Southern kitchen
This soup has been my ride-or-die for years - the kind of bowl I'll happily eat until I'm full enough to swear I'm never eating again… right before I go back for "just one more bite." It's classic Southern comfort with a side of New Year's superstition, the same pot my mom made and the same one that I make every January.
Around here, we take the tradition seriously: greens for paper money, black-eyed peas for coins, and pork for success. Eat them together and you're basically announcing to the universe, "Yes, I will be thriving this year, thank you."
I once told my dad I wasn't sure all this prosperity food was working, and without missing a beat he said, "Yeah… but imagine if we hadn't eaten it."
Touché, sir.
But don't save this recipe for New Year's Day like it's some sacred relic - it's cheap, hearty, fast, and comforting enough to make any random Tuesday feel blessed. And if you need to feed more (or fewer) hungry mouths, just click the servings number in the recipe card and let the magic resize itself.
Now go on. Make the soup. Claim the luck. And maybe fry a little extra bacon… you know, for insurance.
If you love this recipe please comment below and give it 5 stars! ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
marye says
Perfect! You can also just leave it in a crockpot if you are using cooked black eyed peas
Laurie says
Marye.. this soup looks yummy! I love black eyed pea's.. although I have never heard the tradition behind them.. how fun to know!
I hope you learn to love dried beans.. legumes, they are so comforting when cooked fresh and savory!
maryeaudet says
Laurie,
I like them... but I like the fresh versions better. once they are dried they take on a starchy aspect that I don't care for as much. 🙂