Potato Soup, aka Beckman comfort food

As I was trying to decide what to post for my second post this month I realized that I haven't posted my potato soup recipe so here it is.  This is my family's all time favorite comfort food and has been requested many, many times from family and friends.  I make it at least once a month during the winter, typically soup weather but have also made it in the summer, just because. Whenever anyone is sick instead of making chicken soup, this is my go to recipe.  It really is the ultimate comfort food especially when lots of cheese is added. As with all my recipes I add more vegetables than just potatoes.  Turnips, cauliflower, kohlrabi, sweet potatoes especially white sweet potatoes go great with any kind of white potato.  I really like the combination of several kinds of potatoes with the other veggies added.  I also add green onions, sweet peppers and sometimes kale.  Most of the time I don't add meat but at times have added bacon or ham and of course lots and lots of shredded cheese. My secret ingredient to thickening it is adding a few instant mashed potato flakes at a time at the end of cooking to get the desired thickness.  We like our potato soup really thick.
Here's the recipe:
Potato Soup

8 to 10 potatoes, peeled and chopped (don't have to peel new potatoes)
2 sweet potatoes
1 onion chopped
1/2 c chopped sweet peppers
1/2 to 1 c chopped turnips, kohlrabi or cauliflower (or any combination)
water to cover
1 t each seasoned salt and pepper
1/2 t turmeric
1/2 to 1 c milk
1/2 to 1 stick butter
about 1 c instant mashed potato flakes
1/2 to 1 c chopped kale
shredded cheese
cooked bacon, bacon bits or chopped ham if desired
1 T parsley
2 T sofrito
1 T minced garlic


Put chopped potatoes and veggies (except kale) in large pot and cover
with water, add seasoned salt, pepper, sofrito and garlic. Cover and
cook 20 minutes until potatoes are tender. Add kale and other
seasonings, butter and meat and cook another 10 minutes covered.
Thicken soup with instant mashed potato flakes, adding a little at a
time, add milk and cheese. Salt and pepper to taste, can also add
about 1 t onion powder and/or garlic powder and sour cream if desired.

Enjoy,
Bamah

Black-eyed peas for luck

Black eyed peas with cornbread

Happy 2017. My plan for this year is to post twice a month and will try to share some more craft and farmer's market posts along with recipes. I'm going to share my black-eyed recipe for my first post this year.  Eating black eyed peas for luck on New Year's Day is a Southern thing that dates back to at least the Civil War. It's believed that when General Sherman marched through the South, black eyed pea were ignored being thought as animal food, unfit for human consumption. The people felt lucky having this food source to get them through the winter.
My family love black-eyed peas, well 3 out of 4 of us anyway.  They are one of my oldest daughter's favorite vegetables and my youngest daughter refuses to eat them.  I have found they are one of the few vegetables that I can't hide when cooking.  I did puree some cooked ones that were leftover and added them to garbanzo beans to made hummus once.  No one knew the difference and it tasted really good. We have black-eyed peas every New Year's Day served with either rice or cornbread but most of the time with both. Hoppin John is where cooked rice is added to the peas in the last 30 minutes of cooking.  We have that quite a bit as well since it's my husband's favorite. Years ago, I always used dried black eyed peas, soaking overnight then cooking.  In a pinch, I used canned adding rice and my own seasonings.  Now, I only use fresh or ones I've canned myself.  Fresh is so much better and really easy.  I buy them in the summer when in season at the farmer's market, shell them, put in freezer bags and freeze. When I'm ready to cook them, I empty the whole bag in a big pot, add more veggies, chopped celery, eggplant, sweet peppers, garlic, onion , carrots and corn and cook for 1 to 2 hours until tender. Kale, Swiss chard or some kind of greens is also good added in the last hour of cooking. Chopped ham, bacon, smoked sausage or ham hocks can be added the last hour of cooking.  If I have a ham bone I usually add it at the beginning to flavor the peas while cooking. The recipe in my book calls for salt pork but I don't use that, we love ham so that's my meat of choice for black eyed peas.

Black eyed peas with ham

Here's the recipe
if using dried black eyed peas, rinse and cover with water to soak overnight, pour off water and add clean water to cook

2 to 3 c black eyed peas
1 onion chopped
1/2 to 1 c each chopped celery, eggplant, sweet peppers, carrots and corn
1 to 2 c of Kale, Swiss Chard or some type of greens
1 to 2 cloves minced garlic
1 pkg Sazon seasoning mix
1 to 2 t each seasoned salt, pepper, and parsley
2 T bacon grease
1 to 2 c chopped ham, cooked bacon, can also use ham hocks, salt pork or smoked sausage
1 bay leaf
1/2 to 1 t red pepper flakes

Combine peas, vegetables, seasoning in large pot and cover with water.  Bring to boil, reduce heat and cook 1 to 2 hours until tender.  Add greens and meat in last hour.  Can also add 1 c cooked rice in the last 30 minutes of cooking to make Hoppin John. Serve with cornbread.

Good luck in 2017
Enjoy
Bamah

Hoppin John, rice and smoked sausage