New Year's Soup

We are enjoying the last few days of our Christmas vacation with the kids.  We had a very nice new year's eve and new years day.  For the last few years I have served black eyed peas on New Years Day after learning that it was a new year tradition common in the South.  Here is a Wikipedia link if you are interested in learning more about the history of Black Eyed Peas.  I love fun customs, and have enjoyed coming up with my own way to serve these to my family on New Years.  Last year I went with the traditional black eyed peas with Ham hock and corn bread. This year I decided to incorporate them into a soup.

Here is my recipe for New Years Soup

Ingredients:
Soup broth- I used broth from a beef bone I had from a pot roast, as well as an additional box of beef broth because we love lots of broth in our soups, along with some extra beef, this would also be great with vegetable stock.
2 bags frozen black eyed peas
2 medium yellow onions chopped
1 bunch chopped celery
1 can diced Italian style tomatoes
1/2 bag frozen carrots
1/2 bag frozen chopped broccoli
1/2 a bag of stir fry blend veggies with asparagus, golden carrots, french beans & mushrooms (one of my favorite frozen veggie blends)
Salt, pepper, Italian herb blend, and a few dashes of Tabasco sauce to taste

This soup can be made on the stove or in a crock pot depending on how much time you have.  Prepare your broth or used boxed variety, add cooked meat, like roast beef, if desired ( my hubby and kids are not huge bean fans, having a little meat in the soup made them happy), add the chopped onion, and celery, along with the two bags of frozen black eyed peas,  and seasonings.  Cook until celery and onions are close to being cooked through, then add frozen veggies, if you are using a crock pot pre-steam the veggies so they don't lower the temperature of the soup or it will stop cooking, if you are cooking on the stove adding them frozen is fine.  Check seasoning add more if necessary.  We don't like a ton of spice, but just a nice zest, a little Tabasco goes a long way, I like to add it a few dashes at a time so I don't end up with too spicy a soup.  Cook your soup until all veggies and beans are cooked through.

Here it is just about ready to serve-

This soup is loaded with veggies, which makes me happy, I love frozen veggies, they are so nice to always have on hand.  They are quick to prepare with no prep work, they are ready to be cooked when you are ready to cook them, unlike fresh produce, that must be cooked before it goes bad, even if you would rather cook something else.  Frozen veggies are especially nice in the winter when the garden is not putting out all of its fresh produce.  I always have a nice selection in my freezer ready to go.

I served this soup with both French Bread and Sourdough Bread, I think corn bread would be just as good.  We all really enjoyed this soup, I think soup is my family's favorite meal, whenever I have a pot on, no matter what variety I am making, everyone is eager for dinner.

Now that the holidays are nearing their end, I am looking forward to working on many fun projects that are bouncing around in my head.  We still have yet to have any major winter weather around here, in fact I was feeding the birds some bread crusts the other day, and noticed that my lettuce patch was growing rather nicely, yikes!  I may have to drive up to the mountain ( Mt. Hood ) to see some snow this year.

Does any one else serve black eyed peas on New Years?  How do you fix them?  Or do you have another traditional New Year meal, I would love to hear :)  Hope everyone is having a great week!