Black-Eyed Pea Soup

1 pound dried black eyed peas
1 pound spicy sausage
6 cups chicken broth
1 yellow onion, diced
1 cup diced carrots
1 cup diced celery
4 cloves garlic, diced
1/2 tsp Italian seasoning
1 tsp kosher salt
1/2 tsp black pepper
Tabasco sauce (to add at the end to taste)

1. Soak your beans overnight. Drain and pick out the undesirables (broken, discolored beans) in the morning.
2. Use a 5 to 6 quart crockpot. This will serve about 8 people. Dice the veggies, and dump them into your crockpot with the pre-soaked beans. Add sliced sausage. Pour in broth, and stir in Italian seasoning, salt, and pepper.
3. Cover and cook on low for 8 hours, or on high for about 6. Before serving, use a stick blender to smash up about 1 cup of beans. If you don't have a stick blender, scoop out 1 cup of beans, blend them in a traditional blender, and add back to the soup. Don't blend too much---just enough to get the broth thicker and creamy-looking.
4. Ladle into bowls, and add Tabasco sauce to taste.

Source: A Year of Slow Cooking

Try #1 - January 21, 2011
This was delicious! I'll admit I was skeptical, but it was really good. I used beer brats from Trader Joe's, which worked well; a slightly spicier sausage would also have been good. I skipped the blender step, which was fine, and made for less dishes. Nathan really liked it, and thought the flavors were even better the next day. We'll make this again! We served it with corn bread, which was an excellent complement.

Note: PCC sells black-eyed peas in bulk.