This easy Hoppin’ John offers a plant-based twist on the classic Southern style recipe. Some say that black-eyed peas bring luck when you eat them on New Year’s Day. And, we can always use a little extra luck in our corner. So, we like to serve this healthy, one-pot holiday stew to kick off the new year–over a heaping helping of rice!
How To Make This Recipe
Hoppin’ John is a basic, simple black-eyed pea stew full of fresh vegetables, beans, and seasonings. For this hopped-up version, we start with bell peppers, onion, carrots, celery, tomatoes, and spinach. While our recipe calls for canned black-eyed peas, fresh or frozen work just as well if you can find them locally. We season our bean stew with cayenne, parsley, apple cider vinegar, and a few drops of liquid smoke.
Although some people prefer to cook rice within the black-eyed pea stew itself, we find this often results in mushy rice. So, we always cook it separately. This also allows every diner to control their rice portions to suit their own dietary preferences.
Chopped vegetables, black-eyed peas, and seasoning.
Prepare Stew
First, we warm our extra virgin olive oil in a large pot over medium heat. Then, we add our onion, bell peppers, celery, carrots, and garlic. We cook them, stirring occasionally, until they begin to brown and soften.
Sauté those chopped vegetables.
Next, we stir in our cayenne and cook for 30 seconds to bloom the fragrance. Then, one small handful at a time, we stir in the spinach. We grab our spatula and stir after each addition to let the spinach wilt slightly. Our goal here is to cook and stir until we can fit all of the spinach into our pot.
Add spinach in small batches.
Finally, we add our black-eyed peas, tomatoes with their juices, apple cider vinegar, and liquid smoke.
Bring on the black-eyed peas, tomatoes, and seasonings.
We stir and continue to cook for a couple of minutes until the stew is heated through. Before serving, we give it a quick taste and adjust our seasonings based on our personal preferences.
Continue cooking to heat through and soften carrots.
Ready To Serve
Once our stew warms through and those carrots are perfectly crisp tender, we’re ready to serve. In keeping with tradition, we serve our hoppin’ john over a heaping helping of white or brown rice. For garnish, we top with chopped green onion.
Garnish with chopped green onions.
Now, let’s grab a big ol’ spoon and enjoy that Hoppin’ John!
Enjoy your Hoppin’ John!
More savory bean stews:
Recipe Card for Hoppin’ John
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Hoppin’ John
Equipment
- Large pot or Dutch oven
Ingredients
- 2 tablespoons olive oil extra virgin
- 2 large bell peppers mixed colors, diced
- 3 ribs celery chopped
- 3 large carrots peeled and diced
- 1 medium onion diced
- 3 cloves garlic minced
- 1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper or to taste
- 3 cups spinach chopped
- 30 ounces black-eyed peas or two cans, drained and rinsed
- 14 ounces diced tomatoes or one can, with juices
- 1 teaspoon dried parsley
- 1 teaspoon apple cider vinegar
- 1/4 teaspoon liquid smoke
- salt to taste
- pepper to taste
- brown rice cooked, optional for serving
- chopped green onions optional garnish
Instructions
- Heat the oil in a Dutch oven over medium heat. Add onion, green bell peppers, celery, carrots, and garlic. Cook, stirring occasionally, until beginning to brown, between 10-15 minutes.
- Stir in the cayenne. Cook, stirring, for 30 seconds. Working in small handfuls, stir in the spinach, stirring after each addition to let it wilt slightly before adding another handful. Cook and stir until you can fit all of the spinach in the pot.
- Add the black-eyed peas, tomatoes with their juices, parsley, apple cider vinegar, and liquid smoke. Stir and continue to cook until heated through and carrots are crisp tender.
- Taste and add additional salt, pepper, or spices as desired. Serve hot over brown rice and a sprinkle of green onion.
