Are you feeling a little down on your luck and hoping the start of the new year is a harbinger of good fortune? Perhaps cooking up some lucky foods will help you usher in a year of blessings. Many cultures around the world make meals with special ingredients that are believed to be lucky charms.
Whether or not you believe food will bring you good favor, throw a dinner party and serve one of our New Year’s Day side dishes that may bring you wealth, health and happiness.
Slow simmered black-eyed peas and greens
Looking for a comfort food side dish that will have your New Year’s Day guests glad it’s winter? Stop your search and make this dish! Budget Bytes blogger Beth Moncel’s recipe for slow simmered black-eyed peas and greens is a warm, wonderful and welcome meal that is as healthy as it is delicious. After a night of revelry, your guests will enjoy cozying up to a big bowl of belly-warming peas and greens, and you’ll appreciate the oohs and aahs they gasp after every tasty bite. Though you have to plan ahead to soak the peas overnight and allow over an hour for the dish to simmer, you’ll be thrilled at the scrumptious result.
Ginger kale
Start the new year with a deliciously lucky and simple-to-make side dish of ginger kale, a scrumptious recipe from Katie at Chocolate Covered Katie. This good-luck side features cooked kale tossed in a sesame ginger salad dressing and is garnished with crunchy cashews and fresh grated ginger. Whether or not eating kale really does make you healthy, wealthy and wise for the coming year, Katie’s dish is certainly a dish of good fortune — it is nutritious, economical and ready in five minutes or less. Ginger kale is the perfect accompaniment for a big New Year’s Day dinner, but easy enough to put on your family’s everyday menu.
German-style creamed spinach
This recipe for German-style creamed spinach, from Elaine Benoit, blogger and founder of Dishes Delish, will get you excited to eat some lucky greens on New Year’s Day. Featuring just four ingredients and ready in minutes, this simple side dish is irresistibly creamy and near addictive. As lore has it, leafy greens, such as spinach, on New Year’s Day portend prosperity for anyone who gobbles them up. Eating greens will bring more “green.” You and your guests will love this lucky dish so much, you won’t care if eating it doesn’t make you a millionaire.
Collard greens with black-eyed peas
Deliciously usher in the new year like Southerners and dig in to a hearty bowl of these collard greens and black-eyed peas from Monique at Divas Can Cook. If you believe that greens represent cash, and peas represent coins, you’ll be serving your family and friends a sumptuous soul food side, as well as the possibility of them making big bucks this year. This lucky accompaniment to your New Year’s Day dinner is thick with tender black-eyed peas and flavorful collard greens kicked up with onions, spices and smoky meat. Truly this dish can be a main course all on its own.
Kale salad
A fresh side dish is just what your New Year’s Day dinner guests need after all of the indulgences of the holiday season. This kale salad, from Becca Robson, food blogger at Cooking with Confetti, rivals the best restaurant salads. The trick is massaging the kale with lemon, olive oil and spices to tenderize the leaves. Once you prep the kale, toss it with diced cucumber and avocado. This kale salad will get blanket approval from your family and friends — including the ones who claim they don’t like kale. Digging in to this salad may not make you wealthier, but it can certainly help you eat healthier.
Persimmon pomegranate and spinach salad
If living life abundantly is your wish, this persimmon pomegranate and spinach salad is your dish! A recipe from Amy at House of Nash Eats, this vibrant side dish features sliced Fuyu persimmons, pomegranate seeds, red onion and toasted pecans served on a bed of spinach. It is finished off with a citrus vinaigrette made with olive oil, orange and lime juices, apple cider vinegar, maple syrup, salt, pepper and a pinch of ground cinnamon. The spinach and pomegranate are deemed lucky foods for the new year, and this salad will show your family and friends your good favor.
Potatoes au gratin
When it comes to eating a wealth of yum, these knee-weakeningly good potatoes au gratin, from Jessica Gavin, fit the bill. You arrange layer upon layer of thinly sliced Yukon potatoes, pour over a creamy roux-based sauce that is thick with aged sharp cheddar and buttery Gruyère, generously scatter more cheese on top, and bake until the dish is bubbling hot and the cheese is ooey-gooey good. Root vegetables are believed to bring you peace, calm and a feeling of being centered and grounded. Eating any foods that are cut into the shape of coins also portends an abundance of money in your future. Your family and friends will believe that this felicitous New Year’s Day dish is delish regardless of its lucky powers.
Arugula and walnut pesto pasta
Did you know that slurping up strands of long noodles on New Year’s Day may just give you a long life, according to Chinese lore? This arugula and walnut pesto pasta, from Joanna Cismaru of Jo Cooks, isn’t Asian, but it will make you want to live longer so you can eat it again and again. Featuring twists of Gemelli tossed with a bright arugula walnut pesto and topped with Parmesan cheese, this simple yet scrumptious side dish will bring an attention-getting splash of color to your table. Though Gemelli isn’t in the shape of long noodles, the arugula is considered a lucky food that will bring prosperity to your year. You can always swap out the Gemelli for fettuccine, to go with your New Year’s lucky food theme.
Creole black-eyed peas
Cook up some of these Creole black-eyed peas, from Pamela at My Man’s Belly, to give your family and friends luck and prosperity for the new year. A twist on the traditional Southern style of simmering black-eyed peas, this fortuitous two-ingredient rendition calls for roasting black-eyed peas in the oven until they are toasty, crunchy and crazy addictive. You can use canned or steamed black-eyed peas and your favorite Creole seasoning, which means this two-ingredient dish is a time-saving treat. Toss the peas with the seasoning, spread them out on a baking sheet and roast for 40 minutes. Pour them into a serving dish and watch them disappear.
Garlic, kale and brown rice salad with lemon dressing
If you need a New Year’s Day side dish that will complement any main course you put on the table, Pinch of Yum’s garlic, kale and brown rice salad with lemon dressing is the one. Not a traditional salad, this warm and wonderful good-luck dish features kale, brown rice, crushed chips (don’t knock it until you try it), dried cranberries and a zippy lemon dressing made with lemon and orange juices, olive oil, garlic, honey and parsley. Call it a salad, call it a sauté — whatever you decide, your family and friends will call this irresistibly delicious good luck food.
