Spicy Black-Eyed Peas

In an effort to incorporate more vegetarian meals to our weekly menus, Mel found a fun recipe for Spicy Black-Eyed Peas.

First you cook up some yummy bacon (we chose a cut from the black pigs from up North that we've seen people rave about on travel shows).

Then, sautee onions in the bacon fat.

Add the black-eyed peas (carefully rinsed), chili powder, and a can of fire roasted diced tomatoes.  Let simmer for 45 minutes to 1 hour.

In the meantime, we roasted up some diced jicama with olive oil, salt, pepper, garlic powder, and rosemary.

Once the beans are fully cooked (soft to the squeeze), crumble up the bacon and mix it in.  We served it with the jicama and some spicy guacamole (we bought from our favorite Mexican restaurant).  The sweet crunchiness of the jicama and the cool smoothness of the guac were the perfect complements to the subtle soft texture of the beans.  Will certainly make this again when we need a little break from meat.