7 Lucky Foods to eat this New Year!
Do you have a special meal you eat at the start of a new year? Many countries and cultures use specific recipes and ingredients in their New Year’s Day meals that represent health, wealth, and good luck.
Read on to find out more about these good luck meals, and maybe find a new favorite to add to your table in 2024!
Lentils
Lentils are a popular Italian dish eaten at the start of each new year, because the round legumes are shaped like coins. Lots of New Years’ foods represent money or wealth, either because of their shape or their color.
Lentils offer more than just a coin shape, they also have a ton of healthy benefits! One serving of lentils includes 30% of your daily fiber intake, and also is a good source of plant protein!
Recipe: Spiced Lentils
Dumplings
Dumplings are a holiday food for many different countries, and are eaten in Asia, Russia, XX, and XXX. Their shape looks like a bag filled with money, or money itself. They are an important food for Lunar New Year (which is on February 10) and represent good fortune and prosperity for the coming year.
Dumplings are usually filled with vegetables, which help fill you up and give you plenty of vitamins, minerals, and fiber. Some recipes also include plant or animal protein.
Recipe: Vegetable Dumplings
Tamales
The first tamales originated in ancient Mesoamerica, and are a celebrated food in New Mexico. Making tamales is a group activity, and they are commonly eaten during the holidays. The golden masa represents gold and wealth, and the tamales also represent prosperity and family unity - an important value in Mexican culture!
Masa is made with nixtimalized corn, which is easier to digest and provides more nutrients than regular corn meal. Black beans are a great source of fiber, protein, and iron, an essential mineral!
Recipe: Black Bean Tamales
Cabbage
Cabbage is eaten at New Years in Germany and Eastern Europe. There’s a few reasons it’s a lucky food - the green color represents wealth and money, and the long strands of chopped leaves symbolize long life. Another reason it is eaten in early January has to do with when cabbage harvests are ready (late fall) and how long it takes to make sauerkraut (6 to 8 weeks).
Cabbage is a vegetable full of vitamin C, vitamin K, and fiber. It also provides nutrients that benefit your heart, blood pressure, and cholesterol.
Recipe: Sweet and Sour Cabbage
Hoppin’ John, Greens, and Cornbread
These lucky foods are traditionally eaten in the US, and mostly originate from the South! In fact, Hoppin’ John and Greens were part of Kids Cook’s Southern African American Unit we cooked this fall.
Hoppin’ John includes black-eyed peas and rice, which are both staple New Year’s foods. Black-eyed peas symbolize coins and are said to bring prosperity in the new year. Rice is also associated with prosperity and good luck, and is also believed to protect from bad omens in India.
Greens are another traditional southern dish, and their green color is supposed to symbolize money. The golden shade of cornbread is also a clue as to why it is eaten. Its color and shape (typically round) also represent money and wealth.
Black-eyed peas are full of fiber, iron, and calcium. Beans and rice form a complete protein, providing all of the essential amino acids your body needs when eaten together. Greens provide plenty of vitamins and minerals, and also give you lots of antioxidants. Corn meal is a great source of necessary B vitamins, and cornbread is also a good whole-grain source of energy!
Recipe: Hoppin’ John
Recipe: Greens
Recipe: Cornbread