Hoppin' John - Black Eyed Pea Soup Recipe for New Years (2024)

FAQs

What is traditional Hoppin John for New Year's? ›

What Is Hoppin' John? Hoppin' John is a dish traditionally eaten in the southern United States on New Year's Day. Dating back to the early 1800s, it is made with black-eyed peas (aka cow peas), rice, and meat (usually pork, in the form of bacon or ham). The meal can also include collard greens and cornbread.

Today, the tradition of eating black-eyed peas for the New Year has evolved, as many traditions do, into a number of variations – but most hold the theme of luck and prosperity that harkens back to the Civil War days when people felt lucky to have black-eyed peas to eat and help them survive the cold, harsh winter ...

What's the difference between Hoppin' John and black-eyed peas? Hoppin' John has black-eyed peas in it, but it also has other ingredients. In this recipe, the black-eyed peas are stewed with onion, garlic, celery, and a ham hock, similar to how some Southern-style black-eyed peas would be cooked.

For the best chance of luck every day in the year ahead, one must eat at least 365 black-eyed peas on New Year's Day. Black-eyed peas eaten with stewed tomatoes represent wealth and health.

Greens, pork, and cornbread, as well as black-eyed peas, cowpeas, or beans, are some of the typical symbolic foods served on New Year's Day. When planning your dinner menu, add the Southern foods that some say bring good luck and avoid those that may do just the opposite in the new year.

According to Southern lore, you will have good luck for the entire year if you have the traditional New Year's Day supper. In the South, that means a meal of collard greens, hoppin' John, black-eyed peas, cornbread, and pot likker soup.

One unusual but common New Year's Day black-eyed peas tradition involves putting actual money in the dish. Some add to their “luck” by cooking their pot of peas with a penny or dime inside. Whoever gets the bowl with the coin in it, according to legend, has the best luck for the new year.

When Sherman's troops overtook and raided the food supplies of the Confederate South, Union soldiers regarded as them as animal feed and left them behind in the fields. The Confederates, however, survived by eating this crop and considered themselves lucky to have had them and, so, the peas became symbolic of luck.

This eastern European tradition of eating cabbage on New Year's—either as a dish or as cabbage rolls—is meant to signify luck, particularly on the financial side of things. People who eat cabbage on New Year's believe that it'll help them make more money in the year ahead.

Some say an old, hobbled man called hoppin' John became known for selling peas and rice on the streets of Charleston. Others say slave children hopped around the table in eager anticipation of the dish. Most food historians think the name derives from a French term for dried peas, “pois pigeons.”

What is leftover Hoppin John called? ›

On the day after New Year's Day, leftover "Hoppin' John" is called "Skippin' Jenny" and further demonstrates one's frugality, bringing a hope for an even better chance of prosperity in the New Year.

Beans: Dried black-eyed peas are traditionally used in Hoppin' John, but if you're pressed for time, you can use either frozen or canned beans. Rice: Carolina gold rice is a nuttier, earthier strain of long-grain rice that's been a staple of the Lowcountry for centuries.

Ham hock, or pork knuckle, is often used to flavor the greens. Chitlins, or pig intestines, are cleaned and boiled. Black-eyed peas, which resemble coins in the abstract, are added with mustard, turnip or collard greens, which represent money. The dishes are often served with pork.

A ubiquitous New Year's Day good luck food in Europe and the United States, leafy greens from kale to collards are eaten to represent money and wealth. In the American South, collard greens especially are eaten with two other New Year's good luck foods, black-eyed peas and cornbread, for some extra fortune.

According to lore, the forward movement of pigs when they root around for food on the ground signifies a “moving forward” trajectory in life, and thus pork is a favorable meat to enjoy to start the year off on the right track.

Why do we eat black-eyed peas on New Year's Day? It's considered good luck. Also, in the casserole of rice and beans it was traditional to hide a dime, and whoever found the dime in their serving was especially lucky that year.

Ham hock, or pork knuckle, is often used to flavor the greens. Chitlins, or pig intestines, are cleaned and boiled. Black-eyed peas, which resemble coins in the abstract, are added with mustard, turnip or collard greens, which represent money. The dishes are often served with pork.

Hoppin' John was, and still is, often eaten with collard greens, which were said to symbolize paper money, as well as cornbread, which represented gold. Some families boost the potential of their Hoppin' John by placing a penny underneath the dish when they serve it.

Scandinavian New Year's feasts blend traditional and contemporary flavours. Smoked salmon, pickled herring, roast pork and baked ham grace Norwegian tables. The Danes serve cod, stewed kale and sweet marzipan cakes. Swedes drink warming glögg (mulled wine) while snacking on saffron buns.