Simmered Black-Eyed Peas with Tomatoes

This recipe [from Congregation Or VeShalom Sisterhood, Atlanta, Georgia] is adapted from the sisterhood’s synagogue cookbook, The Sephardic Cooks. It is traditional to serve these peas with “pink rice,” Sephardic-style rice cooked with a bit of tomato sauce. Miriam Cohen, a longtime member of the Sephardic community in Montgomery, Alabama, told me, “You know, when I cook pink rice, my son says, ‘This is Jewish soul food!’ It is, you know.”

Note: Recipes in Marcie Cohen Ferris’s book Matzoh Ball Gumbo were compiled from a diverse mix of Jewish Southerners who have blended religion and region through home cooking.

This recipe was featured as part of both our Southern Seder menu and our Supercharge with Superfoods photo gallery.