Filled with pork and greens, this easy black-eyed pea soup recipe is packed with lucky foods for the New Year! Using canned black-eyed peas and pre-cooked kielbasa in this soup gives you maximum flavor with minimum effort.

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I want you to have good luck and prosperity in the New Year, so I suggest you make this easy black-eyed pea soup recipe, pronto. It's filled with many of the traditional New Year's Day foods. Greens and black-eyed peas to bring money and prosperity, and pork to keep you moving forward toward bigger and better things.
You can make it ahead, so it's ready on New Year's Day when you're too tired and hungover to do anything but reheat. It's full of rich flavor from kielbasa and bacon. The longer it simmers, the more pork-y flavor, and the more earthiness from the black-eyed peas.
Using pre-cooked kielbasa and canned black-eyed peas makes for quick prep, so all you really have to do is let the soup simmer to lock in the flavor. Serve it with cornbread - another lucky New Year's Day food - and add a splash of vinegar and/or hot sauce if you so desire.
You can really make this all fall and winter long for a hearty, warming meal, and I suggest you do!
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Ingredients
- Black-eyed peas: I use canned black-eyed peas. Let's keep this quick and easy.
- Kielbasa: Kielbasa adds a nice smoky flavor to the soup, and since it's precooked, you only need to brown it a little, which is a real time saver.
- Bacon: This is going to give us the rendered fat we need to cook the vegetables and more pork for prosperity!
- Kale: You can use tuscan kale or curly kale, both work well.
- Carrots and onions: Our aromatic base for the soup broth.
- Chicken stock and salt: I generally buy low-sodium stock at the store, the bacon and kielbasa will add a bit of salt so you want to be able to control the amount yourself. But if you have homemade stock, by all means use it.

Instructions
Place a heavy-bottomed pot over medium heat. I use my Lodge enameled cast iron dutch oven for this recipe. Cook bacon and kielbasa until bacon is crisp and kielbasa is browned.
Remove bacon and kielbasa from pot and drain excess grease. In the same pot, cook carrots and onion until onion is translucent and carrots soften.
Add bacon, kielbasa, black-eyed peas and chicken stock to the pot and bring to a boil.
Reduce heat to simmer and add kale. Simmer at least 20 minutes until all flavors are melded, or longer if you wish.
Serve with cornbread.

What are the traditional foods for New Year's Day?
On New Year's Day we all want to eat foods that will bring wealth, good luck, prosperity, and will keep us progressing forward. Some traditional New Year's Day foods are:
- Pork
- Black-Eyed Peas
- Greens
- Cornbread
- Ring-shaped foods
- Pomegranate
Related Recipes
- When you're craving a pot pie but you don't want to bake, Chicken Pot Pie Soup will come to your rescue.
- Beer Cheese Potato Soup with Bacon is ready in minutes, it's one of my favorite weeknight meals when the weather turns chilly.
Recipe

Black-Eyed Pea Soup
Ingredients
- 3-4 slices bacon cut into small squares
- 1 smoked kielbasa sausage
- 3-4 carrots diced
- 1 onion diced
- 2 cans black-eyed peas
- 6 cups kale roughly chopped, stems removed
- 8 cups low sodium chicken stock
- kosher salt to taste
- cracked black pepper to taste
Instructions
- Dice the onion and carrots. Cut bacon into small squares, slice kielbasa.
- In a heavy bottomed pot over medium heat, cook bacon and kielbasa until bacon is crisp and kielbasa is browned. Remove from pot and drain excess grease.
- In the same pot, cook carrots and onion until onion is translucent and carrots soften.
- Add bacon, kielbasa, black-eyed peas and chicken stock to the pot and bring to a boil. Reduce heat to simmer and add kale. Simmer about 20 minutes until all flavors are melded, or longer if you wish.
Notes
- You can make this easy black-eyed pea soup a few days ahead so all you have to do is re-heat it on New Year's Day. It tastes even better once the flavors have had a chance to meld together.
- I use my Lodge enameled cast iron Dutch oven for this recipe. It holds the heat well and cooks everything evenly when going from frying the bacon to sweating the veggies to simmering the soup.
jennifer clement
Really liked this soup! I added yukon potatoes - yum. And I am hinky about kale, but in a soup it is perfect.
Debra
Hi Jennifer!
So glad you pushed past that kale fear and tried this soup! That's what starting the New Year is all about, pushing past our fears and trying new things!
Stay adventurous and thanks for reading!
Debra