Here at Culinary Services Group, we recognize that family members often play important roles in caring for loved ones even when they are being cared for in a long-term care community. That care often includes dining and nutrition. Our dining programs seek to engage residents and build community through the universal language of food. This year we’re launching our Friends and Family Recipes. Look for recipe cards throughout our communities or stop by this site for home-kitchen recipes that will help you to connect to your loved one through a monthly wellness focus. We encourage you to talk about what your loved one enjoys eating and what they like or dislike about the dining program where they live.
Our Friends and Family Recipe for the month of January is inspired by the New Year’s Day tradition of eating black-eyed peas. Maybe your family has a different New Year’s food tradition; pork, cabbage, noodles, and grapes are other foods people often eat to bring luck and prosperity in the new year. Food is just one way we can experience different cultures and share those experiences with others.
Most common in the south, black-eyed peas or cowpeas are often served with greens to represent money, or cornbread to represent gold. Eating 365 black-eyed peas on New Year’s day is considered a great way to ensure wealth and prosperity in the coming year. Black-eyed peas are also an excellent source of soluble fiber, and January is also Fiber Focus Month. Just one cup of cooked black-eyed peas contains 11 grams of fiber!
Our Black-Eyed Pea Soup is a great way to enjoy a food that may be new to you and start off the New Year in a healthy, nutritious way. Trying these Friends and Family recipes is also a great way to connect with your loved ones and be a part of the community in which they reside. We hope you’ll try a few (or all) of the recipes we share this year!
Black-eyed Pea Soup
Ingredients:
1lb bulk pork sausage
1 lb ground beef
1 large onion, diced
2 cups of water
3 15 oz cans black-eyed peas, drained
1 28 oz can diced tomatoes with green chile peppers, undrained
1 tsp Worcestershire sauce
3/4 tsp garlic salt
1/2 tsp salt
1 4 oz can chopped green chiles
4 tsp molasses
4 beef bouillon cubes
1/4 tsp black pepper
1/4 tsp ground cumin
Steps:
1) In a large Dutch oven, cook and stir the pork sausage and ground beef with the onion over medium heat until the meat is no longer pink, 10 to 12 minutes; drain off excess fat. Pour in the water, and stir in black-eyed peas, diced tomatoes, tomatoes with green chiles, Worcestershire sauce, garlic salt, salt, canned green chilies, molasses, beef bouillon cubes, black pepper, and cumin until thoroughly mixed.
2) Bring the soup to a boil, reduce heat to a simmer, cover, and simmer for 45 minutes.
