Black Eyed Pea and Turkey Soup

So I have not posted much on food I have made, mostly because I have not been making much food. Also because I am making simple food. But I am going through my freezers and pantry to try and get rid of food before our move to Florida next month. This meal was put together at the last minute with several items from within my freezer. I used leftover rice from this weekend, leftover turkey meat from Easter, frozen black eyed peas from New Years, carrots, rosemary, frozen spinach leftover from making Italian Wedding Soup, and homemade chicken stock. Now while I do think myself a pretty good cook, I think my best event is soup making. We love soup in our house and I can whip up a tasty one in no time flat. So hopefully yall like this as much as we did last night!

Recipe:
1lb chicken, cut up (or leftover pre cooked turkey or chicken)
3 carrots, sliced
1c pre cooked white rice or 1/2c uncooked rice
16oz frozen black eyed peas
4c chicken stock
2c water
1/2-1c frozen spinach
salt and pepper to taste
2T fresh chopped rosemary

Heat some olive oil in a large pot on medium heat. Add the uncooked chicken and season with salt and pepper. Cook 6-8 minutes or until golden. Remove from pan. Add the carrots, rice, peas, rosemary, and lightly season with more salt and pepper. Cook scraping up any brown bits for 1 minute, then stir in chicken stock and 2 cups water. Bring to a simmer over high then lovwer the heat and simmer until the rice and beans are tender, about 20 minutes.

Meanwhile shred chicken. Add to the soup along with spinach and cook for 5 minutes.

*If you want to use leftovers like me. Saute your carrots with the rosemary and salt and pepper. Add in your chicken stock and bring stock and water to a boil and reduce to simmer. Add your chopped cooked chicken, black eyed peas, and cooked rice. Cook for 10 minutes until flavors begin to meld together. Add spinach  and cook an extra 5 minutes until spinach is warm. Season with salt and pepper to taste.

This was a super easy and tasty meal. It might have been close to 100 degrees today, but the soup was warm and comforting and made you forget your troubles. Although I suppose if you want to fancy this up, there are countless ways. This is just the simple base to allow you to expand to suit your tastes. Or a base to help you clean out your freezers!! Enjoy!!