Looking for good fortune and prosperity in the new year? In most cultures, traditional dishes made for New Year’s Day are said to bring luck and money. Often, they include beans — which resemble coins or closed circles signifying the end of one year and prosperity in the next, greens — which represent wealth, and pork — because pigs root forward as they eat — symbolizing a positive direction in the upcoming year.

Throughout the South, blackeye peas and collard greens flavored with pork are popular New Year’s fare for the promise of luck and money (and because they taste so good). So, to cover all of your bases for a prosperous new year, we’ve created a complete menu of comforting dishes that are perfect for a New Year’s Day feast. These recipes are simple to make, big on flavor, and feed a crowd easily. After the champagne’s been consumed and the noisemakers set aside, invite family and friends to come on over (whenever they manage to wake up) and enjoy a casual New Year’s Day celebration that’ll start things off right.

Southern Blackeye Peas

Our classic Southern Blackeye Peas recipe gets its great taste by starting with a savory base of diced ham and chopped bacon. The aromatic trinity of onion, celery, and red bell pepper (for a nice hint of color) gets sautéed in the pot with the ham, bacon, and bacon fat combo. Then chicken stock is added along with the blackeye peas, for even more richness in the final dish. Blackeye peas simmer till tender relatively quickly compared to other beans, so you can make and serve this delicious dish in short order and without much pre-planning.

Southern Collard Greens complement blackeye peas beautifully and also incorporate the wonders of bacon and its grease. First, the fat is rendered out of the bacon, and the crispy, crumbled bacon is reserved for topping. Chopped onion and garlic are cooked in the grease until translucent, and then chicken stock, rice vinegar, sugar, and seasonings are simmered with bright bunches of chopped collard greens till tender. Finally, the greens are topped with the reserved crumbled bacon for an amazing dish that doesn’t disappoint.

Southern Collard Greens

Finally, our Easy Pan Fried Pork Chops round out the menu. So fast and so simple! Thin cut, bone-in pork chops are dredged in a mixture of flour, Creole seasoning, and garlic powder, and then fried in vegetable oil in a skillet. After three minutes per side, they’re done — as well as delightfully golden brown and tasty.

Easy Pan Fried Pork Chops

This whole menu can be cooked up in a little over an hour and is an extremely satisfying way to usher in the new year. Let the prospect of good luck and money (and a wonderful meal) put it on your must-do list for January 1st.

And don’t forget the cornbread!

Buttermilk Cornbread

Delicious Blackeye Pea Recipes & More To Start Off The Year Lucky

Who doesn’t hope for a new year filled with good fortune and prosperity? In most cultures, foods prepared for New Year’s Day are said to bring good luck. Every culture has variations, but the recurring themes are: beans – resembling coins or closed circles signifying the end of one year and prosperity in the next;  greens – representing wealth; and pork products because pigs root forward as they eat – symbolizing a positive direction in the upcoming year.

African Americans in the 18th and 19th centuries made one of the most enduring contributions to the modern holiday. Starting in the Carolinas – but later extending throughout the South – Hoppin’ John (blackeye peas and rice) and greens (collard, mustard, or turnip,) became traditional New Year’s fare. Blackeye peas to bring luck, and greens to represent money and prosperity. The tradition of using ham, salt pork, or sausage used to flavor the greens and the blackeye peas started as a frugal way to use less popular cuts from the pig, but the smoky flavor and richness they impart have become an essential and beloved flavor in the dishes.

Garlicky Shrimp & Blackeye Peas

Southern Blackeye Peas

Blackeye Peas One Pot Meal Recipe

Pork, Collards and Black Eye Pea Gumbo Recipe

New Orleans Style Blackeye Peas Recipe

Blackeye Peas and Spinach

Bessie’s Best New Year Blackeyes

Hoppin’ John Recipe

Slow Cooker Spicy Blackeye Peas

Cowboy Caviar

Blackeye Pea Salad

Camellia Brand Black-Eyed Peas

Southern Collard Greens

Braised Collard Greens Recipe

Ana’s Brazilian Style Collard Greens Recipe

Easy Pan Fried Pork Chops

Pork for the New Year

From Humble Origin to Holiday Favorite

The association of blackeye peas with prosperity and a new start can be traced to Western Europe in the Middle Ages, with the symbolic round shape of the dried beans signifying that the old year has been completed, and a new one can begin. Seeing the small dried beans expand in size as they absorbed the cooking liquid also came to symbolize expanding fortune in the coming year. And peas also resemble small coins.

Despite the centuries-old tradition in the Old World, American colonists originally rejected blackeye peas as beneath them. Prior to the Civil War, Northerners typically regarded the humble legume as suitable only as feed for livestock, while Southerners considered them a rough meal for field workers, as the beans were first introduced to the region by enslaved West Africans. When the Civil War finally ended, desperate and starving Southerners revised their opinion of the readily available and nutritious blackeye pea. Slow cooked with smoked ham hocks, or other “lowly” parts of the pig, pots of nutrient-rich blackeye peas literally saved the lives of many families, and that led to their inclusion into the Southern culinary canon, where they remain firmly entrenched and much beloved to this day, most notably as part of the New Year’s Day meal.

Southern Blackeye Peas

Blackeye Peas One Pot Meal Recipe

New Orleans Style Blackeye Peas Recipe

Hoppin’ John Recipe

Blackeyed Peas-and Spinach Recipe

Pork, Collards and Black Eye Pea Gumbo Recipe

Any Way You Slice It, Pork Adds a Beloved Flavor to Peas and Greens.

In the early 1540s Hernando de Soto and his men traversed the Gulf Coast and officially introduced fifteen hogs to the American South. At the time, the consumption of pork was a Christian duty for every Spanish-speaking Catholic. In fact, during the Spanish Inquisition, it became obligatory to have pork simmering in a cauldron or chorizo sausages hanging from the rafters as proof of the household’s faith.

Pork is considered lucky to eat on New Year’s Day in many cultures. The association was formed centuries ago in Europe when wild boars were caught and killed on the first day of the year – providing the family food for months to follow. Additionally, a pig uses its snout to dig in the ground in a forward direction – symbolizing positive momentum. Strengthening the association of plenty in America, on most farms the first cold snap signified that it was time for the annual hog slaughter. Neighbors gathered to pitch in at each house, and livers, cracklins, and chitterlings were enjoyed immediately. The hog fat was boiled and rendered into lard, and all scraps of meat were ground up for sausages. Sides of bacon, hog jowls, shoulders, and hams were cured in salt for weeks before they were hung in the smokehouse along with sausages, ham hocks, and knuckles. Every part of the hog was used, providing an abundance of pork in the larder for the following year.

Pork is an essential flavoring ingredient in blackeye peas and greens, adding a smoky, rich flavor that gives these tradional dishes their soul-satisfying staying power.

Easy Pan Fried Pork Chops

Braised Collard Greens Recipe

Pork, Collards and Black Eye Pea Gumbo Recipe

Greens for Greenbacks

In the American South, greens are a favorite side dish all year, but especially prized as part of part of the New Year’s Day meal. The symbolism is straightforward: greens — whether collard, turnip, mustard, or cabbage, represent paper dollars or “greenbacks.” Greens are typically flavored with ham hocks, salt pork, or sausage – both because those parts of the pig are a frugal way to add a deep and smoky flavor, but also because pigs root forward when foraging, symbolizing positive momentum for the new year. The slow and low cooking method brings out the rich and mouth-watering pork flavor and the tender texture of southern-style greens.

The southern style of cooking of greens originated with the arrival of African slaves to the colonies, and can be traced back to the resourceful cooks who discovered that slow cooking greens and seasoning them with various cuts of smoked pork resulted in a delicious and hearty dish that appears on family tables all over the south today.

Southern Collard Greens

Braised Collard Greens Recipe

Ana’s Brazilian Style Collard Greens Recipe