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dinner : curried black-eyed pea soup


As a reward for enduring horizontal snow during this morning's commute, I decided some comfort food was in order come dinnertime.  This is one of my cold-weather standbys, and was adapted from a recipe by one of my favorite food bloggers.  The original, seen here, uses canned pigeon peas, as well as potato, and is more of a stew consistency.  I used cooked, pre-packaged black-eyed peas, eliminated the potato and added chicken stock and coconut milk to thin it out.  Apart from those items, the ingredients are pretty much the same.  I also threw in a handful of diced carrots that were nearing the end of their usable life.  Once all the vegetables were completely soft, I pureed the mixture using a stick blender, and served it with a dollop of Greek yogurt and a sprinkle of minced cilantro to make it look all fancy. Whenever possible, I used lower sodium and non-fat versions of all the canned/pre-packaged items, and the finished product was still as delicious and comforting as ever.  Take that, horizontal snow!!

Note: the recipe mentions shado beni, which is also called recao or culanto and can often be found in Puerto Rican or Caribbean markets.  It has a similar taste to cilantro, so you can substitute that if you wish.
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