Instant Pot Black-Eyed Peas are so delicious, and they are a fast cooking bean! Don't even bother soaking them, just season them with great ingredients, and have a fortuitous bowl of good-luck-bringing, pressure cooked black-eyed peas. Don't forget the collard greens, this recipe has them as a tasty option! Make pressure cooker black eyed peas and Steam in the New Year!
Originally published 12/29/2017
Instant Pot Black-Eyed Peas
A long held tradition in the Southern United States is eating black-eyed peas and collard greens on New Year's Day for good luck. The more black-eyed peas you eat, the more luck you will have.
The peas (actually beans) swell when cooked, so they symbolize prosperity; the greens symbolize money; the pork, because pigs root forward when foraging, represents positive motion (according to Wikipedia).
This tradition is very popular, and black-eyed peas appear in recipes such as Cowboy Caviar in Texas, to Hoppin’ John in Alabama, to Peas with Ham up in North Carolina (according to Southern Living).
The Black-Eyed Peas are usually cooked with some kind of pork, for flavor, and though I was told that a good Southerner does not cook collard greens with the black-eyed peas, I did anyway. I'm from Seattle (Mom from the South).
This Instant Pot Black-Eyed Peas recipe is fast cooking, for a dry beans recipe, so it makes sense, and tastes great, to cook the collards with the beans. However, if you do not like that method, I have a fabulous Instant Pot Collard Greens recipe that you can make separately!
If you like a more traditional version of black-eyed peas, try my Southern Black-Eyed Peas recipe
Instant Pot Black Eyed Peas with Collard Greens (or without) are a delicious meal to enjoy any time of the year!
This has been a fun and also challenging year for me, and I'm curious to see what the next year will bring!
I want to thank you all for reading my blog posts, trying my recipes, and supporting Simply Happy Foodie in this first couple of years of being an official food recipe blog. If you ever have ideas or requests, please reach out to me. You can find me on Facebook, Pinterest, or leave me a comment here.
Happy New Year!
Southern Instant Pot Black Eyed Peas
Instant Pot Collard Greens
Instant Pot Ham Hock and Bean Soup
Instant Pot Red Beans and Rice with Sausage
Instant Pot Baked Potatoes
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If you make this amazing pressure cooker black-eyed peas recipe, please leave a comment with a star rating below. I'd love to know how you liked it!
Instant Pot Black-Eyed Peas are so delicious, and they are a fast cooking bean! Don't even bother soaking them, just season them with great ingredients. Don't forget the collard greens, this recipe has them as a tasty option!
- 1 Tbsp Olive Oil
- 1 small Onion, chopped
- 2 Celery Ribs (Stalks), diced
- 1 Bell Pepper, red or green
- 2 small Bay Leaves
- 2 sprigs Fresh Thyme, or ½ tsp dried
- 3 tsp Smoked Paprika
- ½ tsp Black Pepper
- 1 tsp Coarse Salt, or ¾ tsp table salt
- 4 cloves Garlic, pressed or minced
- 1 Jalapeño Pepper, seeded and diced small
- 3 ½ cups Chicken Broth, low sodium
- 2 tsp Balsamic Vinegar
- 1-2 slices Bacon, chopped
- 1 small Ham Hock (or meaty ham bone)
- 1 ¼ cups Black-Eyed Peas, dry*
- 2 cups Collard Greens, (optional) chopped in 2" pieces
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Turn the pressure cooker on to the Sauté function. When the display reads Hot, add the oil.
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Add the onion, celery, and bell pepper, and bay leaves. Cook, stirring occasionally, until the onion starts to turn translucent.
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Add the thyme, smoked paprika, pepper, and salt. Stir.
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Add the garlic and jalapeño. Cook for about 30 seconds, stirring frequently.
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Add the broth, balsamic vinegar, bacon, and ham hock.
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Stir in the black-eyed peas, and collard greens, if using.
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Place the lid on the pressure cooker, locking it in place. Set the steam release knob to the Sealing position. Cancel the Sauté function.
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Press the Pressure Cook/Manual button (or dial) and use the + or - button (or dial) to select 17 minutes (for firmer beans choose 14 minutes). High Pressure.
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When the cooking cycle has ended and the pot beeps, let it sit undisturbed for 15 minutes (15 minute Natural Release), then turn the steam release knob to the Venting position to release the remaining steam/pressure.
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When the pin in the lid drops down, open it and give the contents a stir. Discard bay leaves and ham hock (the ham hock won't be tender, it is for flavor, but if you can get some meat off of it, add it to the pot!).
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Serve over rice for a Hoppin' John, or as is. Enjoy with cornbread to sop up that yummy broth! Happy New Year! Or, any time of year!
*If you soaked the Black-Eyed Peas, reduce the cook time by about half. You can always add time if you need to.
This recipe doubles nicely. Don't double the cooking time.
If you want a more traditional black-eyed peas recipe, Try my Instant Pot Southern Black-Eyed Peas recipe.
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Karen
Cannot believe how delicious these black eyed peas were! I've been trying new BEP recipes for New Year's Day for years without excitement, but everyone raved about these beans. I'll never look for a different recipe. Thank you!
Sandy
That's great! Happy New Year!
Beth
When you say Dry Beans* do you mean I unsoaked?
Sandy
No need to soak.
Tania pascual Rodríguez
Hice la receta
Sandy
Great, I'm glad you tried it!
Tracy H
Dang, just finished cooking this in my Pampered Chef Quick Cooker. Wow! It is absolutely delicious. Great mingling of flavors. I am so used to the bland black eyed peas cooked with just ham hock. My daughter-in-law tasted it and said it was a meal in itself and it is. This recipe is a keeper. I did not have any jalapeno peppers so the only change I made to recipe was to add a few drops of hot sauce. Will definitely make again.
Cheryl Kraft
Best black eye peas I’ve ever had, and I’ve eaten them my whole life. I did make two changes to make it my own which I will do in the future since it turned out so Amazing-
1. I added 1 Boudin Sausage opened out of its casing to the vegetables once the onions began to become a bit translucent.
2. I added 2 cups of spinach and cooked through whole cook time, they became soft but didn’t hurt the recipe.
I served it over rice for the first time and will continue to do that.
My sister made the same recipe today (minus my changes) and she loved it too. Thank you very much this is a keeper!!
Carie
These were wonderful! I used 2 small ham hocks, cooked them in IP first for 25 mins to soften them up. Then used the water they were cooked in, plus a couple tsp of better than bouillon in place of chicken stock. Sautéed all the veggies and garlic together to save a step, then added the spice blend to toast them. And left out the bacon and collards, since I made them on the side. My southern husband and yankee mother both agreed best they’ve ever had. Definitely a keeper recipe! Thank you!
Jill
I just made this yesterday for New Year's Day, and WOW! It's so flavorful and delicious, and was a big hit with my whole family. I served it like a soup with cheddar-jalapeno cornbread (made from Zatarain's mix) and pork tenderloin. The grocery store was out of dried black-eyed peas, so I used refrigerated pre-soaked ones and roughly doubled the amount, since I figured they were already swelled up some. This recipe will be my new tradition for New Year's Day!!
Adam
This is an amazing recipe! I used a 1lb bag of dry black eyed peas. 6 pieces of thick bacon (chopped) and extra paprika, plus a fair amount of white wine vinegar. Just fantastic!.
Cindy
In a word, delicious! I've made other BEP recipes on previous NYD's and they were forgettable. This is a keeper. Some small edits, replaced bell peppers with a mild chile, doubled the bacon as I didn't have a ham hock and sauteed the bacon, onions, garlic, etc with spices for about 20 minutes before adding in the broth and beans. Served on top of a piece of cornbread with drizzled raw honey, so so good!
Jeff D.
Delicious! I used a 6qt Ninja Foodi (which I love) and adjusted for what ingredients I had.
I didn't use the ham, jalapeno pepper, balsamic vinegar, chicken broth.
In lieu of the chicken broth I sub'd pork stock from a pork shoulder recipe a few day earlier. Used 7-8 slices of bacon and about 1.5 cups of andouille sausage. Doubled the minced garlic, used an entire 16oz package of black eyed peas, sub'd smoked paprika in lieu of paprika, no collard greens (although next time I'd like to try).
Served this with iron skillet cornbread = very yummy!
Greg
Just made this. I used 1 lb of dried black eyed peas and adjusted the spices accordingly. No bacon. The flavor is fantastic, this is definitely a keeper. Thanks very much for this well written recipe!