This Stewed Black-Eye Peas recipe is made using a common stew technique in Trinidadian cuisine. Deliciously sweet yet savory enough to enjoy with any grains, as a soup, or mixed into any meal.
To make this Trinidad Black-Eye Peas recipe, you’ll need to either soak your peas overnight or pre-boil them. The cooking will vary depending on how long they are soaked or if they are pre-boiled. I soaked mine overnight which resulted in them cooking for 50 minutes to reach tenderization.
Recipes to try with Stewed Black-Eye Peas
What do you need to make Trinidad Stewed Black- Eye Peas?
- Dry black eye peas
- Avocado oil
- Brown sugar
- Onion
- Celery
- Carrots
- Garlic
- Ketchup
- Worcestershire sauce
- Thyme (preferably fresh)
- Parsley
- Green seasoning or green onion
- Pimento peppers (optional)
- Hot pepper (optional)
- Vegetable broth (can use water or chicken broth as well)
- Salt
- Pepper
Steps
Prep– soak peas in water overnight or boil for an hour with water before stewing. Drain and set aside. Small dice onion, celery, and carrots and set aside. Mince garlic, pimento, and hot pepper if using.
Heat a medium size heavy-bottom pot with avocado oil. Add brown sugar, once sugar starts to melt stir with a dry utensil until it starts to bubble and become caramel in color.
This is the color you’re looking for, do not step away during this process as it can easily burn. If the sugar turns black, restart this process. Once you get to this step, add onion, celery, and carrots and stir.
Add ketchup, garlic, salt, pepper, Worcestershire sauce and stir. Cook for about 5 minutes constantly stirring.
Add peas, green seasonings, or green onion, pimento, thyme, hot pepper, salt and pepper. Stir and allow to “fry” for a couple of minutes for the flavors to marry.
Next, add 6 cups of liquid. you can mix broth with water to achieve this as well. Bring to a boil then lower heat to medium-low, cover, and cook for about 45-50 minutes or until tender. This time might be lower if you previously boiled the peas. Stir in the middle of cooking, taste for salt and pepper. Adjust to taste.
Trinidad Stewed Black-Eye Peas
Delicious Trinidad Stewed Black Eye Peas
Ingredients
- 1 cup dry black-eye peas - soaked for a minimum of 2 hrs preferably overnight
- 1 tbsp avocado oil
- 1.5 tbsp brown sugar
- 1 small onion-diced
- 1 medium carrots- diced
- 2 stalks celery-diced
- 2 cloves garlic-minced
- 2 tbsp ketchup
- 2 tbsp green seasoning or 1/4 cup chopped green onion
- 3 sprigs thyme
- 2 pimentos- minced
- 1 tbsp hot pepper minced
- 1.5 tsp salt
- .5 tsp pepper
- 1/4 cup chopped parsley for garnish
- 6 cups water, low sodium vegetable, or low sodium chicken broth- may need more.
Directions
- Step 1 Heat a medium size heavy bottom pot on medium-high heat. Add avocado oil.
- Step 2 Add brown sugar- once melted stir until the sugar starts to bubble and become a caramel color. DO NOT BURN. If the sugar gets black, toss and repeat the process.
- Step 3 Add onion, celery, and carrots and stir. Add garlic, ketchup, pimento, hot pepper, Worcestershire sauce, salt and pepper. Stir and cook for about 5 minutes.
- Step 4 Add drained peas, and cook for another 5 minutes or so. Add broth, lower to medium-low heat, cover, and cook for about 50 minutes or until tender. Add more liquid if needed. Adjust salt and pepper to taste. Enjoy!
Notes:
Soak the peas overnight or 2 hours before cooking. However, boiling them for an hour or so right before stewing works perfectly. Green seasoning is a blend of herbs that almost every Caribbean household has. If you do not have that, using chopped green onions works fine. When caramelizing the sugar it is important to not leave it as it can burn easily and will result in a bitter taste. Cooking time will vary depending on how long the peas are soaked or if you boiled them before. In addition to these tips, add chopped ham, bacon, tofu, pumfu, chicken, and shrimp for extra protein. Enjoy and let us know if you made this dish!
Nutrition Info per 1/2 cup using myfitnesspal
Calories: 90, Total Fat: 2.6g, Total Carbs: 15.2g, Protein: 1.8g
