Spicy Tomato-Black Eyed Pea Soup

I was in search of a new take on my favourite comfort food - pasta fagiole soup. This didn't quite work, but it was an attempt. The original soup is fairly basic - onion, celery, carrot, garlic, some herbs, kidney beans, pasta, hot sauce for kick, and tomatoes. More or less.

This was pretty much the same thing, except that I cooked my own black-eyed peas rather than using canned, and I skipped the pasta. Instead of the hot sauce, I diced up a serrano pepper and a red hot pepper.

Unfortunately, the beans just had no intentions of cooking to an edible state. I've never cooked dried beans before, so maybe I just didn't let them soak long enough or maybe I didn't cook them long enough after they'd soaked. Maybe they need to be boiled at a higher temperature. Maybe maybe maybe. I don't know. I got tired of waiting for more edible beans though, and just went on with slightly undercooked beans instead. Maybe when I eat some of the leftovers tomorrow, I'll find them more properly cooked.

I also put in too much tomato. I wasn't paying enough attention to my proportions and essentially doubled up on the crushed tomatoes, so it turned out a bit like tomato puree, rather than tomato soup. So not impressed.

The spice from the peppers didn't pop through at all - too much tomato? - so for tomorrow's leftovers, I added some water to thin it out and a glob of hot sauce. Here's hoping the leftovers will be a more worthwhile meal.