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Black-Eyed Peas and Collard Greens

1 January 2009 4 Comments
Black-Eyed Peas and Collard Greens

For many of us, it’s a New Year’s Day tradition: some kind of meat — steak, pork roast, chicken, whatever — with black-eyed peas and collard greens on the side.

A guy I went to high school with recently posted a tweet about what these two items are supposed to mean in your family.

I’ve heard two primary definitions:  in the first, collards represent money and the peas represent health.  This is the one that my family seems to go with.  The second definition has collards representing cash and the peas representing coins.

So tell me your tradition:  are there any foods you make it a point to start the new year with, and if so, do any of them have any special significance?  Leave me a comment.

UPDATE: For those of you unfamiliar with the name, you’ll note “Hoppin’ John” listed as an ingredient in some of the commenters’ meals.  Hoppin’ John is a southern dish based loosely on a Carribean dish, and consists of rice and field peas, or black-eyed peas, or even black beans cooked together, along with chopped onion and, occasionally, bacon, vinegar and spices.  I’ve even seen tomato as an ingredient, but as I’m not much of a tomato person, I wouldn’t recommend going that route.  Some recipes end up looking like a soup, others have all of the water involved cooked into the beans and rice.  In this case, the latter is my preferred method.

4 Comments »

  • JanetLee said:

    Ham, collards and Hoppin’ John (I make my HJ with feild peas). Our family story is collards for money, hoppin’ john for luck.

    Happy New Year!

    # 1 January 2009 at 1:42 pm
  • otowi said:

    We don’t have any New Year’s food traditions – only Christmas/Thanksgiving and those are pretty flexible. Thanksgiving is the most ‘traditional’ in terms of food.

    # 1 January 2009 at 2:23 pm
  • Noozgrrl said:

    Hoppin’ John and blackeyed peas w/greens on the side. Usually we have collard greens but I have been known to go rogue and use mustard greens!

    # 1 January 2009 at 3:11 pm
  • rebekah said:

    I used to do collard greens – my grandma made the best, but when she passed away, everyone knew we couldn’t do her’s justice. So last year I started a new tradition – Cheese Potato soup (my mom’s recipe – but amazing) using the ham bone from Christmas day that I froze. So I made it again this year. Pretty good I must say

    # 1 January 2009 at 8:31 pm

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