For many people, it wouldn't be New Year's without making a big pot of bean or split pea soup. This tradition comes from an old superstition that eating beans on New Year's will bring you good luck. In the southern United States it's specifically black-eyed peas that bring good luck, but elsewhere people tend to cook whichever bean or split pea is their favorite.
Bean soup is also incredibly thrifty. You can make a giant pot of bean soup for about five bucks. Pour the leftovers into some Tupperware containers, label them, and pop them into the freezer. Frozen bean soup will keep indefinitely if properly frozen, and the quality does not really deteriorate with time the way some frozen foods do.
First things first: if you plan to do this, BUY BEANS NOW. I have found that grocery stores often run out of beans at the last minute. I have a friend who went to eight different grocery stores one year, but they were all out of beans. She went bean-less for New Year's, and was sad.
Making bean or split pea soup can be a great way to use the ham bone, if you had ham for Christmas dinner. Or you can cut off all the meat, serve the ham for New Year's Eve dinner, and the soup for New Year's Day. Some butcher shops and delis will even sell you the ham bone separately, but they too can be hard to come by this time of year, and why wouldn't you want all that delicious ham, anyway?
My favorite way to make bean and split pea soup is in the slow cooker. All you have to do is throw everything in there and then wait 8-10 hours. Here is a great basic recipe for Slow Cooker White Bean Soup.
If you want to be really lucky, cook this Black-Eyed Peas With Collard Greens soup. It's two lucky foods in one!
Image courtesy Flickr/nep
1 comments