Black-Eyed Peas for Prosperity and Luck, Y'all

New Year's Day Black-Eyed Peas
"Eating black-eyed peas on New Year's Day brings good luck for the entire year!"

My husband is from the south, an ol' Texas boy. I remember his mother at her kitchen stove, stirring a pot of black-eyed peas every New Year's Day. Her advice was always the same: Just a spoonful will bring you good luck all year long. I can't say that it always worked but it's a nice tradition.

Eating black-eyed peas on New Year's Day is thought to bring prosperity. In the Southern United States, the peas are typically cooked with a pork product for flavoring (such as bacon, ham bones, fatback, or hog jowl), diced onion, and served with a hot chili sauce. The traditional meal also features collard, turnip, or mustard greens, and ham. The peas, since they swell when cooked, symbolize prosperity; the greens symbolize money; the pork, because pigs root forward when foraging, represents positive motion. I took a basic recipe for Black-Eyed Peas and jazzed it up a bit. I got this colorful, tasty soup:

Ingredients:
1 pound dry black-eyed peas, soaked overnight
48 oz. low-sodium, fat-free chicken broth
2 cups chopped, cooked ham
1 onion, diced & sauteed
1 bag matchstick carrots
1 (14.5 ounce) can Italian diced tomatoes, including juice
1 can Rotel tomatoes, including juice
1/2 tsp. pepper, salt to taste
1 tsp. oregano
few good shakes Tabasco
1 bag baby spinach

Directions:
1. Place peas in large soup pot. Fill pot with water. Sort out any hard or misshapen peas, or anything that looks like it doesn’t belong. Bad peas usually float to the top. Let stand overnight (at least 8 hours). Drain soak water, rinse peas in fresh cold water.
2. Place soaked black-eyed peas in 8 quart pot. Add chicken broth and 2 cups water. Simmer gently with lid tilted until desired tenderness is reached, about 1 hour. Skim off foam.
3. Stir in ham and sauteed diced onions, carrots, canned diced tomatoes and Rotel. Season with pepper, oregano and Tabasco. Bring all ingredients to boil, reduce heat and simmer on low heat for another hour. Add 1 bag baby spinach to pot and allow to wilt, about 1 minute. Serve with cornbread.
Original Recipe Yield 16 (1/2 cup) servings

Black-eyed Pea Soup for New Year's

Anyone who reads my blog knows I love to make soup. It's a satisfying and cozy way to spend time in the kitchen. This hearty, filling soup was no exception. I made it by combining several recipes and served it with cornbread slathered in butter and honey. It was a great meal and a wonderful way to start the new year. I like the way 2010 sounds. It has a nice ring to it, deep and full-bodied like a good wine!

NEW YEAR'S BLACK-EYED PEA SOUP
Eating black-eyed peas on New Year's Day brings good luck for the new year!
INGREDIENTS:
1 (16-ounce) bag black-eyed peas
2 cups diced smoked lean ham
1 large onion, chopped
1 bag matchstick carrots
3 garlic cloves, minced
48 oz low-sodium, fat-free chicken broth
1 can Rotel tomatoes, undrained
1 (14 1/2-ounce) can Italian diced tomatoes, undrained
1/2 teaspoon pepper
1/2 tsp. red pepper flakes (optional)
1 Tbsp. dried oregano
1 bay leaf
1 bag fresh spinach
DIRECTIONS:
One package of dried peas is about 2 cups (4 cups soaked). Rinse peas in large pot. Sort out any hard or misshapen peas, or anything that looks like it doesn’t belong. Bad peas usually float to the top. Cover peas with water. Let stand overnight (at least 8 hours). Drain soak water, rinse peas in fresh cold water. Add 6 cups of hot water (or enough to cover the top of the peas). Add ham. Cover peas. Simmer gently with lid tilted until desired tenderness is reached (1 1/2 - 2 hours). Skim off foam.
Saute garlic, onion and carrots over medium heat until vegetables are tender. Add to black-eyed peas and ham mixture; bring mixture to a boil. Add chicken broth, tomatoes, black pepper, red pepper, oregano and bay leaf. Cover, reduce heat, and simmer. Stir in spinach. Remove bay leaf. Serve with grated cheddar cheese and cornbread.

This "Pea" Stands for Prosperity

Eating black-eyed peas on New Year's Day brings good luck for
the entire year!

It wouldn’t be New Year’s in some parts of the country without black-eyed peas. Many families eat them on New Year’s Day for good luck. My husband's family is from the south and the smell of a big pot of these faithful little peas, simmering on the kitchen stove, always takes me back to my mother-in-law's kitchen. Even though we live in Minnesota, we've adopted this fun tradition.

The "good luck" part of eating the black-eyed peas goes like this: if you start the New Year dining in humility (eating the peas), you will become more prosperous as the year progresses. Actually, black-eyed peas aren’t peas at all but legumes, a member of the bean family. Some serve the peas with greens and cornbread. According to tradition, the peas represent coins, the greens symbolize paper money, and the cornbread stands for gold. I've heard that some cooks add a penny to the cooking pot; the person who gets the dished up coin will be showered with good fortune all year long.

And finally, it's the last day of 2009 and the last day of December, which means I've achieved my goal of posting something on my blog every day for a month. It's been fun and rewarding for me. Hope you, my wonderful readers, have enjoyed it, too! And I hope you’re cozy and warm this New Year's Eve, wherever you are. It's bitterly cold here. My blog will officially be one year old in January. I never expected to have a blog, let alone post on it for an entire year. I have amazed myself!

Remember that the new year is a chance to start over with a clean slate. That's such a wonderful, positive opportunity! 2010 has potential- like the seeds of a cottonwood. All new beginnings do, and we shouldn’t wait until a new year to make change happen. Why not September? Or May? And when we make mistakes, why not be forgiving to ourselves, get back up and start again?May 2010 be peaceful, prosperous and happy for each one of you!

Traditional Black-eyed Peas Recipe
1 package of black-eyed peas (about 2 cups)
1 ham hock
a pinch of salt and pepper
Rinse peas in large pot. One package of dried peas is about 2 cups (4 cups soaked)
Sort out any pieces of grit, hard or misshapen peas, or anything that looks like it just doesn’t belong! Let stand overnight (at least 8 hours)
Drain soak water, rinse peas in fresh cold water. Add 6 cups of hot water (or enough to cover the top of the peas). Add the pork or a ham hock. You can add fatback, a little bacon grease, or bits of bacon. A ham hock is a good choice because most of the flavor comes from the bone.
Cover peas. Simmer gently with lid tilted until desired tenderness is reached (1 1/2 or 2 hours).
You can serve the peas over white rice. Some people prefer brown. You can also spoon them over cornbread (and include the juice). I've read that you can add Goya ham-flavored concentrate to your black-eyed peas and ham hock to spice them up. It’s like a ham bouillon. Just keep adding water to the peas if needed to avoid them turning to mush.
I'll add chicken broth and an onion to my peas, along with garlic, celery, carrots and tomatoes. I'll toss in spinach at the end. Should make a lovely hearty soup to start the year out right!