Image source: Wikimedia Commons
I never thought of the traditional Southern dishes eaten for luck at the New Year as particularly Jewish– certainly not “Jewish-traditionally” speaking, since the greens and black-eyed peas often have big ol’ pieces of pig floating around.
So I was surprised to recently learn in a Serious Eats article that the origin stories behind these lucky foods are pretty diverse… and there are even Talmudic connections to the black-eyed peas. The fortune-fused dish may be Sephardic as well as Southern, African, marinated in more lore and cultural-cooking-connections than we would have guessed.
This year, I let New Year’s Day get by me without being home long enough to cook up any of the traditional luck-bringing dishes I’ve made in years past. Now that I know a little bit more about them, I think I’ll make some of those lucky peas… and just chalk it up to ringing the New Year in on “Jewish time.”
In case you want to do the same, try your luck with this this vegetarian/kosher-friendly recipe for delicious black eyed peas. Happy New Year, y’all!
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Sephardic
Pronounced: seh-FAR-dik, Origin: Hebrew, describing Jews descending from the Jews of Spain.
