At the first Noble Food Makeover the menu was black-eyed pea croquettes, a vegenaise dressing with turmeric & dill, fresh spinach salad and miso soup. My goal was to reintroduce foods that everyone’s ancestors had a relationship with – black eye peas are a southern staple, well were until recent.  Now they are found typically only on New Year’s Day and usually poured from a can.  In the American South, eating black-eyed peas and greens (such as collards) on New Year’s Day is considered good luck: the peas symbolize coins and the greens symbolize paper money.

Peep this scrumptious recipe ya’ll with the dipping sauces! Happy New Year! Enjoy!

BLACK-EYED PEA CROQUETTES

I LOVE these and so did everyone at my first Noble Food Makeover and everyone else I have made them for, they are a HIT! Try them for your New Year’s menu this year!

Whatcha’ Need:

2 cups black-eyed peas, soaked overnight in spring water

½ tsp sea salt

1 tsp shoyu soy sauce

1 tsp ground cumin

2 cups safflower oil for frying

Place soaked beans in food processor, add salt, shoyu, and cumin. Blend until you get fine shreds of bean, but don’t blend into a pulp. The mixture will be slightly wet but can hold together.

Form palm-sized croquettes with your hands then heat 1-inch of oil in a cast-iron skillet to about 350 degrees. To test the oil, drop in a tiny amount of the croquette mixture. If it bubbles furiously and rises to the top, the oil is ready.

Do not let the oil get so hot that it smokes. You may need to make little adjustments to the heat throughout the cooking process to avoid burning the croquettes. Place 4 croquettes in the oil and let fry for about 4 minutes on each side. Place on paper towel and drain extra oil.

DILL DRESSING – THIS IS OFF THE HOOK GOOD Y’ALL!

I use this on lots of things – salad, tofu schnitzel, fish tacos.      

Whatcha’ Need:

2 cups of Vegenaise – healthy, yummy mayonnaise alternative with super easy to digest fat

1tbsp of dried turmeric or fresh if using fresh about 2 inches – turmeric fights inflammation

Juice of 1 lemon & you can use some of the zest too!

1 tbsp of dried dill but I prefer fresh so I put about ¼ cup – you can swap dill for cilantro if you want to mix up your flavors!

1 clove of garlic

1tbsp of olive oil

1 tsp of salt & pepper to taste –with digestive dis-ease skip the pepper

Put all this in a food processor or use your hand held wand in a bowl and blend till everything is smooth.