Serves 4 to 6

Time: 45 minutes

December has gotten pretty crazy for me (and the rest of the world), so I’m sharing some of my favorite comfort foods from Appetite For Reduction! Tell me your favorite comfort food meals in the comments and maybe it will inspire a new recipe.

It’s hard for me to imagine having black eyed peas without greens. They’re forever linked in my tastebuds thanks to my idea of what southerners eat every day, even though they probably eat portobellas and arugula, just like the rest of us. Anyway, sometimes I just don’t feel like using two pans. This dish works on so many levels because you don’t need to saute the greens in a ton of oil and you don’t need another sauce for them, everything comes together in one pot. The Bye and Bye, my favorite vegan bar in Portland, puts what I suspect is a lot of hot sauce in their black eyes peas, so that’s what inspired this flavor profile. I love to use Cholula hot sauce in these, but use your favorite medium heat hot sauce (like, don’t use Sriracha, but Tabasco would be fine.) Serve with Mashed Ginger Sweet Potatoes and Apples, for the perfect balance of spicy, savory and sweet!

Recipe notes:

~This recipe calls for shredded greens, but all i really mean is very thinly sliced. A fast and easy way to get this done, is to pile the leaves on top of each other and then roll them up. You’ll see that it’s very easy to slice them that way.

~Peas and greens are a wonderful combination for taste and nutrition. With one serving you will eat as much fiber as the average American gets in a whole day! Plus a day’s worth of vitamin A and a quarter of the iron. Combine with one serving of the Ginger Mashed Sweet Potatoes and Apples you’ll have 16 grams of protein and nearly one fifth of your calcium for the day. All with only 2 grams of fat and under 400 calories.

~Depending on how sweet your apples are, you may need even less agave than listed in the sweet potatoes, or perhaps even no agave at all! Taste before adding.

1 teaspoon olive oil

1 small onion, diced small

2 cloves garlic, minced

1 bunch kale or collards, rough stems removed, shredded (about 1/2 pound)

1/4 cup water

1/4 teaspoon salt

2 15 oz cans black eyed peas, rinsed and drained

1 cup tomato sauce

1/2 cup veg broth

1 tablespoon hot sauce

1/4 teaspoon liquid smoke (optional, a smidge of smoked paprika would be great too)

Preheat a 4 quart pot over medium heat. Saute the onion in the oil until translucent, about 5 minutes. Use a little cooking spray if needed. Add the garlic and saute a minute more. Add the greens, 1/4 cup of water and salt. Cover the pot and cook the greens down for about 10 minutes, stirring occasionally. Add black eyed peas, tomato sauce and broth and thoroughly mix. Cover pot and cook for about 5 minutes, stirring occasionally.

Add hot sauce and liquid smoke, then use a potato masher to mash some of the beans, about 1/4 of them, to thicken the sauce. Cook for about 5 more minutes uncovered. Taste for salt and seasoning. You may want to add more hot sauce, I often do, but I err on the side of caution with recipes for spicy things. Serve hot.

For the Sweet Potatoes

1 pound apples, peeled, cut into 1/2 inch chunks (2 average sized)

2 pounds sweet potatoes or yams, peeled, cut into 1/2 inch chunks

1/4 cup water

1/4 teaspoon salt

1 tablespoon agave (optional, see note)

1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon fresh grated ginger, see note

Cooking spray

Preheat a 4 quart pot over low heat. Spray with cooking spray, then add apples, sweet potatoes, water and salt. Cover pot and sweat the apples and sweet potatoes for about 20 minutes, stirring often. What this means, is just to cook them slowly and let them steam. You want to coax the misture out of them, but if you make the flame too high they’ll burn and cook unevenly.

After 20 minutes, you can turn the heat up just a bit. Add a little more water if needed. Cover and cook 20 more minutes, paying close attention so that they don’t burn, and stirring often. When they’re very tender, they’re done. Mash with a potato masher. Add the agave, cinnamon and ginger, and mash some more. Taste for salt and seasoning. Serve warm.