Let’s explore four distinctive southern pea varieties that deserve a place in your pantry and on your table.

Lady Cream Peas: The Delicate Jewel

Lady Cream peas stand out for their delicate appearance and elegant flavor. These small, pale legumes cook to a creamy consistency while yielding a clear pot liquor, prized in southern households for their subtle sweetness and refined texture. The key to perfect Lady Cream peas lies in gentle simmering and careful seasoning – they absorb flavor beautifully without requiring heavy spicing.

Lil’ Auntie’s Lady Cream Peas

This treasured family recipe enhances the peas’ natural creaminess with seasoning meat (or butter), aromatics, and herbs. After gentle simmering, they develop a tender texture perfect alongside cornbread or as a base for grilled fish.

Crowder Peas: Bold and Beautiful

Named for the way they crowd themselves within their pods, Crowder peas deliver robust flavor and hearty texture that stands up to bold seasonings. These hardy peas thrive in the southern climate, creating a deep, dark broth when cooked. Crowder peas offer a perfect foundation for building complex flavors with smoky pork, onions, garlic, and herbs.

Clayton’s Crowder Peas

This family recipe honors the peas’ natural earthiness with classic southern cooking methods – simmering with seasoning meat before adding sautéed aromatics and herbs, resulting in a rich pot liquor perfect for sopping up with bread or serving over rice.

Field Peas: The Soul Food Staple

Field peas are similar in flavor and texture to blackeye peas but with their own distinctive character. Part of the cowpea family brought to America from Africa, these adaptable, heat-tolerant legumes have become a cornerstone of soul food cooking. When prepared traditionally with smoked pork, sautéed aromatics, and herbs, they develop a flavorful pot liquor that carries their unique earthy essence.

Patricia’s Perfect Field Peas

This heritage recipe showcases the peas’ distinctive flavor, while the Field Peas & Snap Beans variation adds fresh green beans, salt pork, and dried red chili pepper for color, texture, and a gentle heat that complements their natural earthiness.

Blackeye Peas: The Good Luck Charm

Perhaps the most widely recognized of all southern peas, blackeye peas have earned their place as both a cultural icon and a culinary staple. No southern pea holds more cultural significance than the blackeye pea on New Year’s Day. Served with greens and pork in Hoppin’ John, they’re believed to bring prosperity, with the peas symbolizing coins and the greens representing paper money.

Bessie’s Best New Year Blackeyes

This cherished recipe enhances the peas with seasoning meat, aromatics, and a touch of herbs like thyme and sage. For a classic Hoppin’ John, simply add rice, tomatoes, and green onions – served alongside collard greens for both flavor and fortune.

The Southern Pea Heritage

From humble beginnings, southern peas have evolved into beloved ingredients that carry cultural significance and family memories. Each variety offers its own personality and cooking properties, but all share the adaptability, nutritional benefits, and rich history that make southern peas truly special.

As you experiment with these recipes, you become part of the continuing story of southern cuisine—a tradition of transforming simple ingredients into soul-satisfying meals that bring people together.

Our quarterly subscription boxes deliver the joy of authentic Louisiana cooking, right to your door. And while the goodies in each box are a surprise, you can look forward to 5-10 favorites that include signature & heirloom beans, delicious seasonings, ingredients, tools for the kitchen, and everything in between. Plus, you’ll find some exclusive, handpicked items that are sure to delight. Find out more, and get cookin’.

Bean Quinoa Salad

Light, fresh, and protein-packed, this Quinoa Salad is delicious and makes a great weekday lunch or side dish. Swap out Black Beans for the Small Red Beans in this summer’s subscription box. Smaller and darker in color than our Red Kidney Beans, the colorful, diminutive red beans possess a rich, nutty flavor. Side note: We love our Small Red Beans in this creamy Avocado Bean Salad from Gimme Delicious.

Another item you’ll find is Dagostino extra virgin olive oil. (Be sure to use it in the quinoa salad dressing!) It’s first press cold-extracted from the best Sicilian olives, golden yellow in color, and carries the scent of fresh olives — offering a fruity flavor with an almond aftertaste.

Lil’ Auntie’s Lady Cream Peas

In this recipe, Lady Cream Peas (another item in the box) are slowly simmered with butter or your favorite seasoning meat. They feature a sweet flavor and creamy texture and pair perfectly with a side of cornbread and smothered okra.

Elizabeth’s Perfectly Pink Beans

Don’t miss our Pink Beans + a special BBQ seasoning packet for making BBQ baked beans! For similar flavor, try Elizabeth’s Perfectly Pink Beans, slowly simmered with salt pork or a ham hock, chili powder, dry mustard, molasses and onion. Both dishes are delicious alongside the smoky grilled meats of summer.

Lady Cream Peas, Crowder Peas, and Field Peas

Some of our favorite Southern staples include three delicious varieties of peas that are treasured among those who know them, love them, and probably grew up eating them. Lady Cream Peas, Crowder Peas, and Field Peas are humble, endearing, and homespun. They’re also commonly known as “cowpeas” or “southern peas”. And with one simple recipe that can be personalized to your liking, they’ll simmer into a delightful pot of creamy goodness to be enjoyed alone or alongside other Deep South delights.

If you’re not familiar with these peas, here’s a bit of backstory. Despite their names, none of these varieties is actually a pea. These beans were brought to the New World from Africa and became part of the Southern diet beginning in the 1600s. Cowpeas are commonly grown in the South since they are adaptable, heat-tolerant, and drought-resistant.

Cook up any of these three pea varieties, and the result will be a perfect comfort food dish for rounding out your favorite Southern meal. What you’ll find here is one simple, original recipe from the Hayward family (owners of Camellia beans), that was personalized and named for the particular pea varieties and the family members who loved them. (Our Lil’ Auntie loved lady cream peas, Patricia favored field peas, and Clayton had to cook up crowder peas!) The recipe is easy to follow and brings out the flavors of each of the three different peas; simply personalize the pot based on the pea variety and seasoning meat you choose. You can also make these peas vegetarian by using olive oil or vegetable oil. Otherwise, the basic recipe features butter or oil, diced onion, mashed garlic, a generous mixture of dried herbs that’s often called a bouquet garni, as well as salt and pepper. These Hayward family favorites are still served today at get-togethers and holidays!

Lil’ Auntie’s Lady Cream Peas

Here, Lil’ Auntie’s Lady Cream Peas are simmered with a hearty ham shank for meaty flavor, then combined with the sautéed vegetables and seasonings, and cooked till tender. With a sweet flavor, creamy texture, and clear pot liquor, Lady Cream Peas are lovely served over rice, and this dish pairs well with other Southern pleasures like smothered okra and homemade cornbread.

Patricia’s Perfect Field Peas

Patricia’s Perfect Field Peas are cooked here with smoked sausage for wonderfully savory flavor — and then, just like the lady cream peas — mixed with the sautéed vegetables and seasonings, and simmered till soft. Ideal in soul food dishes, field peas are similar in flavor and texture to blackeye peas — in other words, they’ve got a distinctive, delicate flavor all their own. And when served over rice, alongside creamy mac ‘n cheese and a loaf of crusty French bread, Patricia’s Perfect Field Peas are irresistible.

Clayton’s Crowder Peas

For a different kind of smoky flavor, we cooked Clayton’s Crowder Peas with smoked turkey legs and then simmered them till tender with the sautéed vegetables and seasonings. The crowder pea variety gets its name from the way its peas crowd themselves in the pod; it has a rich, hearty flavor and creates a dark pot liquor when cooked. Serve these beauties smothered over rice, alongside fried chicken and biscuits, and your family and friends will be in heaven.

Pick your pea, and get cooking. Or try all three, and see which one you prefer. They’re all delicious Southern staples that deserve their rightful place at the table.

Perfect Southern Peas

Ingredients:

• 1 (1-pound) package Camellia Brand Crowder Peas, Lady Cream Peas, or Field Peas
• 1/2 pound seasoning meat or 1/4 pound butter
• 10 cups water
• 1 teaspoon butter or olive oil (optional)
• 1 large onion, diced
• 1 toe garlic, pressed
• 1 1/2 teaspoons your favorite dried garden herbs or Camellia’s suggested Dry Herb Blend
• Salt
• Coarse ground pepper

Directions:

1. Rinse and sort peas.
2. Cover peas with water, add seasoning meat or butter, and simmer about 1 hour.
3. Sauté onion and garlic in butter or olive oil, add to pot with remaining ingredients, and  cook 1/2 hour or until soft.
4. Salt and pepper to taste.