Get ready for a New Year filled with good luck and wealth with Hoppin' John
- New Year's Day will be here before you know it. If you live in the South, you know what that means...Hoppin' John.
- It seems that not everyone who grew up down here knows about this New Year's Day tradition...my husband who grew up in the South never even heard of this until he met me. I have made the traditional bacon-laden version for him and the vegetarian version for me. Both are tasty and traditional.
- Throughout the coastal South, eating Hoppin' John on New Year's Day is thought to bring a prosperous year filled with luck. You're supposed to eat at least 365 beans, but who the heck is going to count out the beans...just eat a lot.
- A coin is sometimes added to the pot and whoever gets the coin in their serving gets extra luck for the year.
- Eat your Hoppin' John with collard greens, mustard greens, turnip greens, chard, kale, or some other greens - it's supposed to bring you wealth since they are the color of money.
- I had never heard this before, but I recently read that leftover "Hoppin' John" is called "Skippin' Jenny". Frugal Southerners always ate their leftovers and sometimes giving it a special name, I read, made it taste better the second time around.
- Hoppin' John Without the Meat
- 12 ounces of Black Eyed peas, fully cooked (or canned)
- 1 cup of uncooked rice
- 1 small onion, chopped
- 2 pieces of soy chorizo
- 1 /4 of a bell pepper
- 2 tablespoons of butter
- 2 cups of veggie broth
- 1/2 teaspoon of garlic powder
- 1/2 teaspoon of salt
- Hot sauce
- •Combine the broth and seasonings.
- •Cook the rice in this until it's tender.
- •In a frying pan, sauté the onion in the butter until they're tender.
- •Put the rice, the black eyed peas, and the onion in a large bowl and stir everything to combine it.
- •Add 2 tablespoons of hot sauce, stir again. If it's not hot enough, add more.
Vegetarian
