SouthernAirs: 2 Foods To Bring New Year's Good Luck

Photo by Nathan Anderson on Unsplash

​Two traditional Southern dishes believed to bring good fortune  for the New Year are collard greens and the black-eyed pea concoction hoppin' john. Eat both of them on January 1, and you may get a double dose of good luck along with the vegetable nutrients.

The Atlanta Journal -Constitution recently reported: "With leaves the size of a dinner platter and as sturdy as a new dollar bill, collards symbolize money for many in the South. Eating them New Year’s Day with a side of black-eyed peas is supposed to usher in prosperity and good luck in the coming year. Skipping them could bring bad times."

The same goes for hoppin' john, a name with unclear origins. The dish includes some combination of black-eyed peas and rice, with additional ingredients optional.  

Here is one our favorite collard green recipes, followed by one for the colorfully named hoppin' john.  By some accounts, each person at a meal where hoppin' john is served should leave three peas on their plate to ensure a New Year blessed by luck, fortune and romance.

Barbecued Collard Greens

Ingredients
3 tablespoons of olive oil
2 tablespoons of minced garlic
1 1/4 cup diced onions
1 pound of fresh collard greens, washed, chopped and with stems discarded
6 cups of chicken stock
1/2 cup cider vinegar
1 cup SouthernAirs Classic BBQ sauce, (or similar all-natural BBQ sauce containing mustard & ketchup)
1/4 teaspoon cumin
1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper
1/2 teaspoon paprika
1/2 teaspoon dry mustard
1 tablespoon brown sugar

Directions
Saute the garlic and onion in heated olive oil in a pot large enough to hold all of the ingredients. Cook until they are translucent. Add the remaining ingredients, stir well, bring to a boil, and then lower heat to simmer for 45 to 60 minutes.
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Hoppin' John

Ingredients
1 pound dried black-eyed peas
1 1/2 cups uncooked rice
4 slices bacon, diced 
1/2 cup chopped onion
1/2 cup chopped celery
1/2 cup chopped carrots
2 teaspoons minced garlic
2 bay leaves
1/4 teaspoon red pepper flakes
1 tablespoons butter
1/2 tablespoon SouthernAirs ORIGINAL Hot Sauce (or similar mild cayenne sauce)
3 cups chicken stock
Water
Salt & pepper to taste

Directions
Rinse and cull the dried peas in a strainer. In a large pot, add 8 cups of water with the peas, and bring to a boil.  Boil for two minutes, then cover and remove from heat. Let stand for one hour. Pour the peas back into the strainer, drain, then place them back into the pot. Add 6 cups of water. Simmer gently for about 1 hour. Cook the diced bacon in a saucepan until done. Add the onions, celery, carrots, garlic, bay leaves and saute them for one or two minutes. Add the ingredients in the saucepan to the pot of simmering peas. Add the red pepper flakes, hot sauce and salt and pepper to taste to the pot, and continue to simmer for another 45 minutes or until the peas are tender but not mushy. In the meantime, in a separate pot bring the three cups of chicken stock to a boil, add the rice, cover and lower to a simmer.  Cook about 15 minutes until the rice is done. Stir the butter into the rice. Arrange a helping of rice onto each dinner plate and, using a slotted spoon, top it with the pea mixture. We like to sprinkle a few extra drops of hot sauce onto each helping at the table.