I’ve been saving this hearty, easy, 30-minute meal for cold weather. It’s finally here, and my body wants to warm up.

You might be thinking what is black-eyed pea chili, but trust me, it’s so good.

I’m really the biggest fan of beans, but I couldn’t stop eating this. Maybe it’s the country sausage that added very fast flavor in less than 30 minutes.

Sausage is a great addition to black-eyed pea chili.

You can do your own substituting with another sausage, but country sausage and black eyed peas just makes good culinary sense.

My favorite kitchen pots are my dutch ovens. I have several. The nice thing about them is that you can put the lid on and put them in the oven. You can turn your oven very low and cook like a slow cooker or keep warm without worrying about the burning the bottom. This 6-quart Emerald Green Dutch Oven from Lodge is very affordable.

I received the white soup crock as a gift and I found a set with lids here.  These are the cutest and the kiddos love individual soup crocks too. By the way kids, love sausage black-eyed pea chili too.

If you love traditional chili, my husband’s recipe for five bean chili can be found here. I also have a paleo chili recipe here that is made with beef and sausage.

Black-Eyed Pea Chili with Country Sausage is a perfect winter’s meal that you can make after work easily. You can prep the onions and veggies in advance and have a satisfying, yet fast easy real food meal.

More Soups and Stews from Spinach Tiger

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Country Sausage Black Eyed Peas Chili

Black Eyed Peas Chili, south of somewhere pairs with country sausage for a unique flavor, done in under 30 minutes.

Course Entree

Cuisine American

Prep Time 10 minutes minutes

Cook Time 20 minutes minutes

Total Time 30 minutes minutes

Servings 4

Author Angela Roberts

Ingredients

• 1 tablespoon olive oil or canola oil
• 8 spicy sausage patties
• 2 cans black eyed peas rinsed and drained
• 1 16- ounce can diced tomatoes
• 1 can water
• 3-4 tablespoons chili spice from your favorite mix
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon black pepper or to taste
• 1/2 red bell pepper diced 1/2 cup
• 1/2 green bell pepper diced 1/2 cup
• I medium onion diced, approximately 1 cup
• cilantro chopped
• shredded cheese optional garnish
• sour cream optional garnish

Instructions

• Break sausage up and heat in a cold heavy bottomed pan. Stir frequently until cooked through.
• Add oil to pan.
• Add in onions, and bell pepper until softened, cooking for 3-5 minutes on low heat.
• Rinse black eyed peas in cold water and drain.
• Add in can of tomatoes with all its juices, black eyed peas, and one can water.
• Add 1/2 package of chili seasoning, either half of the package or 3-4 tablespoons.
• Season with salt, black pepper.
• Cook on very low heat for 30-60 minutes.
• Stir every ten minutes or so. If the chili is still too dry, add a little more water to the pan.
• Serve with shredded cheese, sour cream, and chopped cilantro.
• Cooking Notes: You can substitute canned beans with another kind of bean. This is for four dinner servings, so you may want to double the ingredients for a larger batch. As far as bell peppers, you can use a red bell pepper or a green bell pepper instead of both.

Notes

If you decide to cook this longer, you may need to add in more liquid.

The post Country Sausage Black-Eyed Pea Chili appeared first on Spinach Tiger.

This roasted red pepper soup recipe almost didn’t happen.

But sometimes, the heavens line up,  and what was going to be a lunch of leftovers suddenly becomes a worthy recipe.

After making sausage and peppers for a party, most of the peppers and onions were left over, and just as I was ready to pitch them, my Vitamix took hold, and a roasted red pepper soup recipe was born.

It’s been soup time around here, and so don’t miss the ones featured below, and wait till you see the cauliflower kale sausage soup that’s coming. I can’t get enough soup of all kinds, but the pureed ones are just so satisfying and usually super health and body loving.

The Health of It – Red Bell Peppers and Onions are High on the Must Eat List

This roasted red pepper soup recipe will fill you up and give you a big punch of healthy.

Red peppers deliver a large amount of Vitamin C, contain antioxidants, are high in Vitamin A, Vitamin B 6 and magnesium. Red bell peppers contain lycopene a cancer fighter, especially for the lungs and prostrate.

There is more good news. Red Bell Pepper is not a a hot pepper, but still stimulates the metabolism, creating a thermogenic effect, without the burn, stimulating weight loss.

Onions are a main staple of Italian food (actually more so than garlic), but I’ve always taken them for granted, never thinking about their nutrition value, only thinking about flavor. Onions are an excellent source of vitamin C, sulphuric compounds, phytochemicals and a flavonoid called quercetin. Onions contai  chromium, which assists in regulating blood sugar and onions help reduce inflammation. Maybe this is why Marcella Hazan put onions as a main ingredient in her famous tomato sauce. 

The Good Taste of Roasted Red Pepper Soup Recipe

This roasted red pepper soup has consistency of a creamy soup and yet there is no cream or cream substitute of any kind. I used just two ingredients, roasted red peppers and onions. You certainly could whisk in some cream or sour cream, but I didn’t find that necessary. I always find it remarkable how creamy roasted vegetables get all on their own when you have a super blender.

The Secret Ingredient

The secret ingredient is fennel (from the sausage flavor). But you can just as easily roast the peppers and onions with olive oil and some fennel seed, and if you dare, just roast a bulb of fennel along with the peppers.

This roasted red pepper soup recipe is minimalist, just peppers, onions and a little bit of olive oil, making this a perfectly healthy, warming wintery soup. It all simply goes into the Vitamix (or similar type super blender) and in a few minutes, you have soup. I had used a variety of bell peppers including an orange, a yellow and two red. Never ever use green; they are too harsh for this recipe.  Do feel free to add in some heat. I used red chile flakes, but sriracha would work too.

So tell me, do you make soups in your Vitamix or super blender? Share with me in the comments. I’m always interested in hearing from you.

Connect with me on instagram where I often sneak preview pictures of my next recipe.

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Roasted Red Pepper Soup Recipe

Dairy Free, Vegan, Paleo Friendly Wintery warm roasted red pepper soup.

Course Soup

Cuisine American

Prep Time 10 minutes minutes

Cook Time 45 minutes minutes

Total Time 55 minutes minutes

Servings 2

Author Angela Roberts

Ingredients

• 3 large red bell peppers
• 1 large sweet onion
• 1 fennel bulb optional or
• 1/4 teaspoon fennel seeds
• 1 teaspoon olive oil
• sea salt
• freshly ground black pepper
• red chile flakes

Instructions

• Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.
• Slice peppers into strips, remove all seeds
• Slice onions.
• Slice fennel bulb (if using).
• Layer peppers and onions on a baking sheet with just enough olive oil to glisten.
• Roast until peppers are soft about 30-40 minutes. Turn halfway through.
• Blend in Vitamix adding salt and pepper to taste.
• Garnish with red chile flakes.

More Healthy Soups from Spinach Tiger

Carrot Ginger Soup for a Healthy Heart

Cold Fighting Beef Soup with Einkorn Wheat Berries

30- Minute Green Health Soup

Healthy Mexican Chicken Rice Soup

Borscht, The Elixer of Soups

Fresh Tomato Basil Soup

Chicken Noodle Soup

The post Roasted Red Pepper Soup Recipe appeared first on Spinach Tiger.

If you can find Italian heirloom eggplant, consider yourself of good fortune. Last week I was able to pick up a few of these from a farmer who used seeds from Italy.

The flesh of these eggplants was so tender and so sweet that I had wondered if I ever really had any good eggplant before.

I wanted a simple eggplant recipe that took very little active cooking time.

Even though I knew we were going out to dinner, I got to work straight away in the kitchen, peeling, chopping and braising. I was on the phone with another food blogger at the time and told her, “I’m not sure what I’m doing, but I’m going to put everything in a big pot and see what happens.”

First of all, typically eggplant needs to sit on the counter, and salted to draw out excess moisture. When I did that, there was no excess moisture, but the flesh was beautiful, tender, and appeared to be picked that day. It peeled very easily although I have finally found a peeler that works after going through three peelers that only frustrated me.

I had six big fat fresh farm tomatoes from Burns Produce Stand, an onion, a red bell pepper, a little garlic, basil, and that was that. Burns Farm Produce Stand sits on the farm from which I do a lot of instagram stories.

This simple eggplant recipe went beyond my expectations. At first bite, I did feel as if I was eating my great grandmother’s food.

Authentic Italian food is nuanced, and if tomatoes are involved, should taste as if they just came out of the garden. A bite should make your eyes close and your stomach happy. I think American restaurants are finally discovering the truth about Italian cooking, but it’s taken a long time. Too much of what represents Italian food is heavy, acidic, and far from its roots.

This dish only works if the vegetables are very fresh and the tomatoes ripe. In lieu of fresh tomatoes, you can use a couple of cans of San Marzano tomatoes, but even those differ from can to can.  I like the Cento certified, which for the money is a great value. Avoid any of the San Marzanos in the white cans or Muir Glen organic (taste is sub par). Epicurious did a blind taste testing. Read here to see what they liked. 

You can play around with this simple eggplant recipe by adding pasta, meat or making soup.

When Mr. Spinach Tiger saw what was in the pot, he begged me to add sausage. That’s a great idea, but seriously this can be eaten by itself, with pasta, with rice, or with crusty bread.

On the second day, I thought I put it in the Vitamix, made soup and added Italian Sausage. I’ll do that recipe separately at some point so people can easily find it.

I made this in my favorite Lodge Dutch oven. You can also put everything into a slow cooker and walk away.

Roasted Eggplant Crostini Recipe

Roasted Eggplant, Okra, Cherry Tomatoes

Eggplant Sauce for Over Swordfish

Grain Free Eggplant Parmesan (Keto friendly) is one of my newer eggplant recipes and just fantastic.

More Eggplant Recipes from Spinach Tiger

More Italian Recipes from Spinach Tiger

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My Great Grandmother's Simple Eggplant Recipe with Tomatoes

When eggplant is braised with tomatoes, onion, and bell pepper, you have a magical stew, or soup.

Course Entree

Cuisine Italian

Prep Time 15 minutes minutes

Cook Time 3 hours hours

Total Time 3 hours hours 15 minutes minutes

Servings 8

Author Angela Roberts

Ingredients

• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 2 cloves fresh garlic
• 2 eggplants peeled cut into large cubes
• 6 extra large fresh tomatoes or 2 large cans San Marzano Tomatoes about 6 cups
• 1 bell pepper seeded, sliced thinly, lengthwise
• 1 onion chopped
• fresh basil
• Kitchen Tools
• Vegetable Peeler I use this one
• Dutch Oven I cook in this

Instructions

• If using fresh tomatoes, blanch first for one minute in boiling water. Cut one end with an x and peel.
• Chop tomatoes. Set aside. If they are too watery, you may discard some of the liquid. My tomatoes were very meaty, so I used everything.
• If using canned tomatoes, chop roughly. Use all the juice from the can.
• Heat olive oil in a large pot.
• If using a dutch oven on top of the stove, heat olive oil and soften garlic. Add onion and saute for a minute or so just to add flavor to the oil.
• Add the rest of the ingredients.
• Cook on very low for three hours, until all the eggplant is very soft.
• TO MAKE SOUP (which is an option)
• Put 3/4 into a vitamix or use an immersion blender. You can blend all of it if you desire. Serve with fresh herbs and pecorino romano.

Note: There are affiliate links on this page which help support the operation of Spinach Tiger.

The post My Italian Great Grandmother’s Simple Eggplant Recipe with Tomatoes appeared first on Spinach Tiger.