A Southern New Year’s Tradition

For many years our family has upheld a Southern Tradition of eating Black Eyed Peas on New Year’s Day – there are many justifications for this out there, but it ‘brings luck” is the simplest we have retained through the many myths and incantations we have heard over the years.

It is always a struggle to try to do something new with this staple pea-bean. Soups, salads; crushed into veggie burgers, mixed into veggie chili…you name it, I think we’ve tried it. More often than not, we would grab a can of these off the shelf in the super market on New Year’s Eve and just eat a spoonful of them.

This year, we went a different route.

Hopping John.

This was actually a recipe we first tried last year, but this year we augmented it with some additional items we had in the fridge from a large dinner party the night before to help boost the taste.

Essentially:

• Sautee chopped bacon in a saucepan until it is just crisp.
• Add chopped garlic (1 clove), onion (1 small), celery (2 stalks)
• (I added chopped Spanish Chorizo here as we had some left over and I wanted the spice)
• Add 2 cups Black Eyed Peas (I got mine this year from the Farmer’s Market and soaked them overnight)
• Sautee together for 4-5 mins
• Add 1-2 cups white wine
• Cover and simmer until peas are soft, but not mushy (20-40 mins)

I ate it just straight out of a bowl with some crusty bread on the side, but it can be served on rice if you felt like going that way.

It was incredibly tasty and definitely made me feel lucky.

Hopefully that will last another 364 days.