The new year is the perfect time to embrace positive habits. Across cultures, certain foods are thought to bring luck, health, and abundance. Whether or not you believe in traditions, these tasty and varied dishes offer a special way to kick off your year.
1. Black-Eyed Peas
As highlighted by Good Housekeeping, black-eyed peas are the star ingredient in Hoppin' John, a smoky bean and pork dish popular in South Carolina on New Year’s Day. These peas symbolize abundance and good fortune, and tradition says the more you eat, the more luck you attract.
How to enjoy them: in bean rice dishes, bean salads, or coconut rice with black-eyed peas.
2. Pork
Across many countries—from the U.S. Midwest to Eastern Europe—pork symbolizes progress and forward movement, since pigs root forward when they eat. It’s often served with cabbage or sauerkraut, but pairing it with long noodles or vegetables is also thought to bring luck.
Try it as: roasted pork chops, pork pasta dishes, or tonkatsu.
3. Grapes
In Spanish tradition, it’s customary to eat 12 grapes at midnight on New Year’s Eve—one for each month of the year. Doing so is said to bring luck and success in the coming year.
Delicious ideas: roasted grape desserts, grape salads, or grape-infused meat dishes.
4. Green Leafy Vegetables
Spinach, chard, and other green leafy veggies resemble money, so eating them symbolizes wealth. They’re often served alongside black-eyed peas to invite both luck and health in the new year.
Try them in: veggie-packed fish dishes, salads, or vegetable rice.
5. Pomegranate
The pomegranate symbolizes fertility and abundance. In Greece, smashing the fruit at the doorstep on New Year’s Day is a tradition—the more seeds that scatter, the greater the luck. In Jewish culture, each seed represents a wish for the year ahead.
Enjoy it in: pomegranate cocktails, salads, or desserts.
6. Cabbage
In Central and Eastern Europe, Ireland, and parts of the U.S., cabbage represents luck and wealth, its green color reminding us of paper money. It’s often enjoyed stuffed or in traditional dishes.
Delicious ways to serve: stuffed cabbage, sautéed cabbage, or cabbage pie.
7. Fish
In Scandinavian, Eastern European, Chinese, and Jewish communities, fish symbolizes abundance, fertility, and progress. Serving a whole fish on New Year’s is common to start the year “head first,” not tail.
Try these ideas: roasted fish with citrus sauce, fish soup, or steamed fish with vegetables.
8. Long Noodles
In Asia, long noodles are eaten as symbols of longevity and good luck. In Japan, soba noodles are enjoyed on New Year’s Eve, while in China and Taiwan, long noodles are part of Lunar New Year celebrations, all wishing for a long life.
Delicious options: cold noodle salads, baked noodle casseroles, egg noodles with vegetables, or baked spaghetti.
9. Lentils
According to Italian tradition, lentils—popular here too—resemble coins, so eating them on New Year’s Day can bring wealth. In ancient Rome, leather pouches filled with lentils were gifted to wish financial prosperity.
Try lentils in: lentil salads, stuffed vegetables, or spiced lentil dishes.
No matter how you shape your New Year’s menu, these foods offer not only delicious choices but also a playful way to invite a little extra luck into your everyday life.
