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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
Ingredients
- 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 1/2 tsp dried
- 3 tsp Smoked Paprika
- ½ tsp Black Pepper
- 1 tsp Coarse Salt, or 3/4 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
Instructions
- Turn the pressure cooker on to the Sauté function. When the display reads Hot, add the oil.
- Add the onion, celery, and bell pepper, and bay leaves. Cook, stirring occasionally, until the onion starts to turn translucent.
- Add the thyme, smoked paprika, pepper, and salt. Stir.
- Add the garlic and jalapeño. Cook for about 30 seconds, stirring frequently.
- Add the broth, balsamic vinegar, bacon, and ham hock.
- Stir in the black-eyed peas, and collard greens, if using.
- Place the lid on the pressure cooker, locking it in place. Set the steam release knob to the Sealing position. Cancel the Sauté function.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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!).
- 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!
Notes
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
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Happy New Year!
I always make black-eyed peas for New Year’s Day despite none of us in my family really liking them. It stems from a family tradition for luck and prosperity so generally I just make everyone take a spoonful. I was grateful to find this recipe because I have a new instant pot and my cookbook didn’t have anything for black-eyed peas. I didn’t have ham hocks or a ham bone ready to go so I used Smokies. I didn’t have collard greens so I used 2 cups of frozen spinach. This was so easy to make and I was really surprised when I took the first taste! Delicious!
I offered a bowl to my husband and told him I thought it was great. He said, “Not like your usual black-eyed peas?” And I chuckled. Turns out he asked for a 2nd bowl! My 13 year old son loved it too! I couldn’t believe my “luck”!
Thank you so much for the help!
Made this for 1/1/2020 – WOW, do I ever feel lucky! This was absolutely delicious & is definitely an auspicious beginning to the year. Thank you ver much. I shall continue to follow your recipes.
This is by far the best black eyed peas I’ve ever made. I’m vegetarian so I substituted the bacon and ham hock by smoking the soaked peas and used vegetable stock. I only used 2 tsps of smoked paprika. So delicious!!
I made this today and WOW! My husband and I loved it! So glad I found your recipe! I doubled it and was wondering if it would freeze ok?
Happy New Year & happy new recipe! I made this today for the first time. My grocery was completely sold out of the dried peas yesterday, but had plenty of fresh ones, so I bought an 11 oz tub of them. I treated them as if they were soaked & reduced the cook time on my IP to 8 minutes. Perfection!
Made this last night for New Year’s Eve and it was delicious! I loved it with a few dashes of vinegar and my husband loved his with some hot sauce. He proclaimed the recipe a keeper so we will be adding it to the rotation! My new favorite way to eat black eyed peas…never really cared for it before…but this recipe won me over.
I made this for New Year’s Day and was so happy with it! My mother-in-law said she could it it everyday, and frankly so could I. We had it with cornbread to sop up the liquid and that was a good call – delicious!
Awesome! Thank you. Happy New Year!
I have never been much of a black eyed pea fan but would choke them down once a year on New Year’s Day. I made this today and absolutely LOVED it! Great flavor. I didn’t have jalepenos so I added a can of Rotel to add a little heat. Everyone raved about it. Thanks so much!
Awesome! Thank you!
DELICIOUS!!! Just made this tonight, but I used a big smoked turkey leg from the grocery store (already have ham hock in my collard greens).. I cooked the turkey leg in 4 1/2 cups of broth for 18 min with full NPR before making the recipe to get a really good flavor to the broth and to have extra turkey stock. I shredded the meat off and put it aside. When I added the broth and beans to the pot I put JUST the turkey bone in. I added the meat after it was done.
Wow! Best recipe I’ve ever made for New Year’s Day black-eye peas and collard greens. Just made a couple of changes to suit my own tastebuds (cubed ham instead of a ham hock and celery seed instead of celery) but it’s the seasonings and cooking time of your original recipe that make this dish so amazing! Thank you for sharing!
That’s great, Donna! Thank you do so much!