Mess of Greens Soup

So, here you have it… literally a recipe for a “mess of greens.” It’s about time, right?

You may have tried some of my other New Year’s Day recipes (see pickled peas, black eyed pea hummus or lucky soup) but unlike all of those recipes that focus on black eyed peas, greens play a starring role in this year’s dish to bring us all luck and money in 2015. I was lucky enough to have a friend bring me a gallon bag of mustard and turnip greens from her winter garden yesterday, PLUS a gallon bag of shelled pecans (y’all. aren’t I so lucky?!?) and I’d had some pretty delish turnip green soup at Turnrow books a couple of weeks back, so it seemed like a no-brainer. My dish is pretty standard compared to the other ones you find on the interweb, except I gave my broth a spicy kick with some red pepper flakes, and use bacon AND ham (why choose just one?). Hope you enjoy!

What you Need:

One can of black eyed peas

2 quarts of turnip greens (around 4 bunches or probably one or 1.5 bags of prewashed)

1 onion, chopped

2 garlic cloves, chopped

4 strips of bacon

1 package ham pieces or 1 ham bone

4 cups chicken stock

2-4 cups water

salt, pepper, red pepper flakes to taste

What you do:

Let’s face it, every good southern vegetable recipe starts with bacon. This one’s no different. You brown the bacon and the ham pieces, then use the grease to sautee’ the onions and garlic until transluscent.

Once the onions and garlic are cooked, you add in the chicken stock and the red pepper flakes. (I bet I gave this about 8 good solid shakes)

Once that’s at a good rolling boil, you can toss in your greens. Make sure you wash your greens super well to rid them ofgrit (My friend brought a mix of mustard and turnip greens, because that’s what came out of her garden (can you stand it? FRESH greens right out of a winter garden!) so there was basically NO grit on these babies. but supermarket greens, or even freshgreens when the weather hasn’t been rainy can get pretty gritty). Also, make sure to take out all the little veins and stems and tear the leaves up into 1cm x 1cm pieces.

Once those have been stirred around a bit, add in the ham and bacon (that you’ve chopped up) and the water. You want it all to simmer together for a good hour to an hour and a half at least.

Once the greens are beautifully wilted and the flavors have melded a bit, stir in the black eyed peas. The peas here really aren’t a integral part of this recipe like they’ve been in my previous New Year’s fare. This year I decided to let the greens take center stage and let the peas just add a little texture.

I let the soup simmer for another hour on low at this point and added in a bit more water because it was getting too thick. Eyeball it and if you think it needs more broth, a little more water can’t hurt. Watch out if you decide to add more chicken broth, though. It’s likely that the bacon and ham will have a gracious plenty of salt already, and you want to be able to wear your rings the next day. 😉

You can either serve it immediately, or freeze it and serve it at your leisure. (but whatever you do, serve it with cornbread. For the love of God, don’t forget the cornbread! Greens & cornbread are like peas & carrots, Peanut butter & jelly, Santa & Reindeer. If you make this soup, you must, absolutely, one-thousand percent also serve cornbread.

I’m saving the rest of mine for my New Year’s day get-together…. I love to share a little luck on the first day of each year with a few friends and neighbors. Here’s wishing you holiday cheer and luck and money in 2015!

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