Black Eyed Peas with Kale, Jade Pearl Rice with Shiitake Mushroom, Baby Arugula Salad (No Added Fat)

My family loves Jade pearl rice but we've not been able to find it locally for some weeks now. But I found a single bag of it a few days ago! I picked up some shiitake mushrooms and decided to make a nice rice and mushroom side dish.

Earlier in the day, my wife had made black eyed peas in our Instant Pot pressure cooker. I think that she soaked the peas overnight then cooked for maybe a half hour with small chunks of potato and onion. I didn't realize that she also had included some turmeric and garam masala.

I decided to use the black eyed peas as a starting point for the main course along with collard greens that my wife had picked up. I also had some yummy baby arugula on hand. This is what I did:

Ingredients

• Head of collard greens, stems excepted (I composted them) and then leaves roughly hand torn into approximately 3/4" squares
• 3 cups prepared black eyed peas (as per discussion above, my wife had made some with potato)
• 3 carrots cut into 3/8" slices
• Vegan bouillon cube
• 1/4 cup water
• Salt to taste (I used about 1/2 t black salt - kala namak)
• 1/8 t turmeric
• 1/3 cup onion cut into 1/4" cubes

Process

1. I put the collards, black eyed peas, carrots, bouillon cube, and water into my InstantPot and cooked at high pressure for 3 minutes.
2. I let the pressure cooker come down in temperature so that I could open it (one could slowly release pressure, as well). I added the turmeric, salt, and onion, and served.

I also served a shiitake mushroom Jade pearl rice and baby arugula topped with tomato.

Results

Dinner was good. My wife loved the main course; I thought it was good but we both agreed that it had a touch too much turmeric (I didn't know that she had already added turmeric!). Eating Jade pearl rice was a welcome treat! I didn't know that arugula is available in a small baby form and love it!

Ideas for the future

I wonder how collard green stems might cook. I could try adding stems cut into small 3/8" pieces in a pressure cooked dish sometime. Corn would have gone well with the main course. We rarely cook with collard greens - I definitely prefer kale, but should get collards more often.