Spicy Hoppin' John soup is my favorite soup- so warm and comforting, and the spice factor is perfect. Like many soup recipes, this one can be adjusted to your tastes!
I created this recipe because I really enjoyed the Hoppin' John soup served at Rafferty's restaurant. The soup is not on the menu and is only offered at certain times of the year. My version is very tasty, if I do say so myself.
Hoppin' John Soup combines breakfast sausage, rice, black-eyed peas, chicken broth, tomato sauce, and Creole seasoning! You can add more or less of the peas, sausage, or rice. If you like thick soup, add less broth; for a thinner soup, add more broth.
Add a lot of Creole seasoning, or just a little, or use your favorite spices. You get the idea. Make it your way. I like my soup with a lot of spice, but hubby doesn't. I add more Cajun seasoning to my bowl when I dish up the soup.
update September 2025: I made a variation on the Hoppin' John Soup recipe and I included the ingredients and photos for the variation below the original recipe.
30 Minute Spicy Hoppin’ John Recipe
A hearty soup with a base of chicken broth, filled with sausage, peas, and rice, and seasoned with Creole spices. This is truly a quick dish.
Ingredients:
½ lb. Breakfast Sausage (Jimmy Dean, Swaggerty’s, etc.)
1 15.8 ounce can Black Eye Peas
3 cups Chicken Broth
1 ½ - 2 cups cooked Rice (I used minute rice)
4 ounces tomato Sauce
½ teaspoon Tony Chachere’s Creole Seasoning
Instructions:
Combine 1 cup minute rice and 1 cup water in a microwavable bowl. Microwave on high for 4 minutes, then let sit for 5 minutes or until all water is absorbed. Or follow the package directions for cooking the rice.
Brown the sausage while the rice is cooking. Drain any grease from the browned sausage before adding other ingredients.
Add chicken broth, tomato sauce, black eyed peas, rice, and Creole seasoning to the browned sausage. Bring to a boil over medium heat and then reduce the heat to low. Simmer the soup for 5 to 10 minutes.
Serve the soup with your favorite sides, such as salad, grilled cheese, crackers, cornbread, etc.
How To Make The Hoppin' John Soup
Combine the rice and water in a large glass bowl and microwave it.
While the rice is cooking, brown the sausage, breaking it up as it browns.
I use Swaggerty sausage, but it may not be available in your area. No grease cooked out of the sausage. It looked just like the photo above. Sometimes a lot of grease will cook out of the sausage.
Add the black-eyed peas or black eye peas to the sausage.
I was raised in the country, and we always called them black-eyed peas, but on the Bushes can it reads blackeye peas.
Remove the rice from the microwave and pour it into the soup pan.
Add the chicken broth, tomato sauce, and Creole seasoning to the pot.
Simmer the soup for 5 to 10 minutes, then serve.
- Classic Creole seasoning...
Add additional items to suit your tastes.
I had leftover bacon from breakfast, so I broke it into small pieces and added it to the soup.
Notes
Season your soup according to your tastes. I like my Hoppin' John spicy, so I sprinkle more Creole seasoning in my bowl when I dish it up. You can always just season the soup with salt and pepper.
Add more or less chicken broth, depending on how thick you like your soup.
When I cooked one cup of Minute Rice with one cup of water, I felt like it made two cups of rice, but I didn't measure it. The instructions on the Minute Rice box (Publix brand Minute Rice) say it makes 1 ½ cups. That is why I was a bit unsure about the rice measurements, lol.
Regular rice may be substituted for the minute rice.
The longer the soup sits, the more liquid is soaked up by the rice. You may need to add more broth. Or you may like this as a Hoppin' John side dish instead of soup. In that case, just make the recipe with less liquid!
I added two slices of leftover cooked bacon (diced into small pieces) to my soup. Love those leftovers!
I like a piece of cornbread with my homemade vegetable beef soup, but not with the Hoppin' John.
Jalapeno Hoppin' John Soup Variation
I made my first pot of soup for the season last week. I don't know why we have to wait until fall and winter to make soup and chili, do you? I mean, we eat hot, fresh from the oven or cooktop, food for most of our meals so I don't see the difference.
As I mentioned earlier you can change any recipe to suit your taste....or maybe change the recipe if you have a variation on an ingredient like I did with the can of Jalapeno Blackeye Peas.
I picked up a couple of the canned peas on one of my shopping trips. I thought, why not, because I like my soup a little spicy. So I used this can of peas for the soup.
The peas did not contain an overabundance of jalapeno, which was a good thing.
Next, I went to the cabinet to grab a can of tomato sauce so I could add 3 or 4 ounces of sauce to the mix. But I spied the can of tomatoes and okra and decided to dump it in the pot instead of plain tomato sauce. I keep cans of various Margaret Holmes products in the cabinet to add to my vegetable soup.
There are a lot of tomato chunks and just a few pieces of okra in the can. I'm not a fan of tomato chunks in my soup but these were rather small.
Did I like this variation? I enjoyed the light taste of jalapeno and the okra. The soup was good but I'm not a fan of the acid taste of canned tomatoes and the liquid. Canned tomato sauce does not usually have a strong acid taste.
So, next time I might use the can of Jalapeno Blackeye Peas and my usual tomato sauce. It is always nice to experiment. You never know what you will come up with.
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30 Minute Spicy Hoppin’ John Soup
Author: Recipe Idea Shop
Ingredients
- ½ lb. Breakfast Sausage Jimmy Dean, Swaggerty, etc.
- 1 15.8 ounce can Black Eye Peas
- 3 cups Chicken Broth
- 1 ½ - 2 cups cooked Rice I used minute rice
- 4 ounces tomato Sauce
- ½ teaspoon Tony Chachere’s Creole Seasoning
Instructions
- Combine 1 cup minute rice and 1 cup water in a microwavable bowl. Microwave on high for 4 minutes and let sit 5 minutes or until all water is absorbed.
- Brown the sausage while the rice is cooking. Drain any grease from browned sausage before adding other ingredients.
- Add chicken broth, tomato sauce, black eyed peas, rice, and Creole seasoning to the browned sausage. Bring to a boil and reduce heat to low. Simmer the soup for 5 to 10 minutes.
- Serve the soup with your favorite sides….salad, grilled cheese, cornbread, etc.
Notes
Kathy Owen
I created this recipe because I loved the similar soup at Rafferty's restaurant. It is easily customizable with more or less of each ingredient or seasonings.