Black-eyed pea, kale, and chorizo soup

From Terri Griffith

Serves 10 (?)

[Ed: I’m pretty sure this is Terri’s soup, and not the parsnip with turkey meatballs, but it’s a little hard to tell. Apologies for the blown-out photo. Really, I’m buying a new camera today. Terri — whom I first knew way back in our heyday as disaffected Pacific NW teens, and whom I reconnected with more recently here in Chicago — based this soup on one she used to make at The Sisters restaurant in Everett, Washington. Here’s what she says about it: “Usually, I’m a bean soaking, stock making kind of gal. But with 75 papers to grade this week, my usual from scratch ethic did not happen. For this week’s Soup and Bread, I turned to a soup that can be hurried along by using canned ingredients. At The Sisters we made our own stock. I hope they don’t think less of me.”]

Ingredients

Preparation

Bring chicken stock to boil, add black-eyed peas in large pot. Reduce heat. In a skillet, sauté onion in olive oil. Add to pot. In the onion skillet, cook the chorizo though, but not until dry. (When using chorizo in natural casing, you may press it out a little at a time into balls. It’s not so important that they be round, but you’re aiming for little bites of chorizo in your soup and not have it turn out crumbly like ground beef.) Brown chorizo in batches. Do not crowd pan. Drain on paper towel. Add to pot. Simmer on low for two hours stirring occasionally. A half-hour before you intend to serve your soup, skim any accumulated chorizo fat from the top. Chop kale into pieces and add to pot. Serve when kale is cooked, yet still bright green.