Signature Dish of the Day: Zucchini & Black-Eyed Pea Ragout
Signature Dish of the Day: Our first highlight and signature dish of the day today is this healthy, deeply flavorful, and truly satisfying Zucchini & Black-Eyed Pea Ragout! This wholly vegan/vegetarian ragout is a variation of my previously posted Hearty Black-Eyed Pea Soup and similarly comes fully loaded with tons of unbeatable flavor and healthy nutrients to boot. While I used red beets for my previous recipe, I used small slices of golden beets for this dish in addition to carrot and zucchini slices as well. Although ragout typically consists of a stew of meat and vegetables, I found that both the zucchini and carrots provided a nice hearty texture to the dish and were therefore the perfect meat substitutes for this vegetable ragout.
As noted in my previous post, one quality that makes black-eyed peas unique compared to other dry beans is that you do not need to pre-soak them overnight before cooking. I only soaked for about 4 hours in cold water before rinsing thoroughly and boiling under high heat with about 4 cups of water for 45 minutes until they had become tender. I then drained the boiling water and set the beans aside.
To create this delicious vegetable ragout, I first sautéed a combination of diced red onions, tomatoes, and julienned slices of 2 small golden/yellow beets in some extra virgin olive oil in a large cooking pot. I seasoned the base mixture with some ground black pepper, dry rosemary flakes, smoked paprika, cumin, turmeric, and just a dash of salt. I added about 1/4 cup of water to the mixture to begin developing the base broth and let this simmer for about 5 minutes. I then stirred in half-moon slices of peeled green zucchini as well as round slices of 2 large peeled carrots into the mixture and stirred thoroughly to blend well. I covered the pot and let this cook down slowly under medium heat for about 10 minutes. Thereafter, I poured in the boiled black-eyed peas, added about 3 cups of water and seasoned with some salt to taste, then covered the pot to let the stew simmer under medium heat for about 15 minutes until it had achieved a nice smooth and thick consistency. I garnished the ragout with some dry parsley about 2 minutes before turning off the heat and removing the finished ragout from the stove. Hearty, irresistibly delicious, flavorful, and deeply satisfying...this healthy vegetable ragout truly checks all the right boxes and is guaranteed to make a great addition to your home dinner menu, so give it a try soon! Enjoy 😍😋💝
