New Year’s Day Black Eyed Peas
Thought generally to be a US Southern Dish or "Soul Food", it actually has roots from the Israelites dating to the 5th Century BC.
Why New Year’s Day? Because for certain, this is one dish that will always be made on that day in the Kitchen Tapestry household. It’s been a tradition in my family since I was old enough to eat with a spoon. I was surprised when my career took me out of Texas and to the Southern US states of Florida, Georgia and Tennessee to find that not everyone knew about the tradition of eating Black Eyed Peas on New Year’s Day for good luck. I just took it for granted everyone knew this. But they didn’t. Unless they were Jewish.
As it turns out, eating Black Eyed Peas generally, and eating them specifically on New Year’s Day wasn’t an originally Southern idea. This tradition goes back to the 5th Century BC as a part of a meal for good fortune eaten on the eve of Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year. It became a standard code of Jewish conduct in the 16th Century and Black Eyed Peas are eaten by Sephardi and Israeli Jews on the eve of Rosh Hashanah to this day.
In 1730, a large contingent of Sephardi Jews migrated to Georgia, bringing this custom and the legumes with them. The heat-loving crop quickly took to Georgia, Florida, the Carolinas, and came to Texas and Virginia after the Revolutionary War. It is easy to see why, therefore, that Black Eyed Peas are often associated with Soul Food and Southern cooking.
My recipe for Black Eyed Peas cooked in a crock pot is just about the easiest thing you can make, just be aware of the need for a full day of cooking time.
These also go very well with a hunk of corn bread and some of the Kitchen Tapestry recipe for Savory Tomato Compote, for which it was originally created.
New Year's Day Black Eyed Peas
Ingredients
- 1 lb dried black eye peas
- 2 cups chicken stock (like, Kitchen Basics or Swanson's)
- 2 cups chicken broth (like Campbell's or Swanson's)
- 1 jalapeno pepper, cored, seeds removed and finely diced
- 1 small yellow onion, finely diced
- 2 cups of leafy celery, finely diced, including leaves
- 2 tbsp minced garlic
- 1/8 cup Worcestershire sauce
- 8 oz salt pork or thick-cut bacon, cubed or cut into lardons
- 1 tsp black pepper
- 1 tsp seasoned salt (like, Morton's Season-All)
Instructions
- Rinse the black eyes under cold water through a colander and always look for small pebbles.
- You can either soak the black eyes in enough cold water overnight, or put them in a cooking pot with enough cold water to cover the legumes by four inches, and then bring to a boil. Allow the black eyes to boil rapidly for three minutes, then turn the heat off, cover the pot and let it sit for one hour.
- Pre-heat your crock pot by filling it with hot tap water, and setting it on high heat for thirty minutes.
- Whether you've soaked the beans overnight or did the stovetop method, discard the soaking water.
- Empty the crock pot of its heating water, then place the black eyes and all remaining ingredients into the pot, stir, cover and cook 3 hours on high and another 6 hours on low. Stir once about halfway through.
Notes
- If you're in high altitudes above 5,000 feet, during the initial start-up of the recipe, boil the legumes for 4 minutes and allow to sit for 90 minutes
