Heirloom Yellow Eyed Peas – A “New” New Year’s Day Tradition

The last few years my family has started out the new year by eating black eyed peas. I found these beautiful yellow eyed peas at the farm market. The owner says they are in the same family but have a smoother taste and greater depth of flavor. They are considered an heirloom bean.  You may know that black eyed peas are often served on New Year’s Day because its thought they bring good luck. However, yellow eyed peas are thought to bring not just luck, but luck in the form of GOLD. So, I am going with it! ‘Cause I could really use some gold right about now!

If you can’t find yellow eyed peas this recipe would also be great with traditional black eyed peas.

I wanted to keep it simple. Because after the Holidays, cooking is the last thing we all want to do right?

I have made a couple of variations of these in the past few weeks to get the recipe just right. This last time, I added the ham bone from the holiday ham. It added a great dimension to the flavor, but is not necessary for the beans to taste yummy. So if you have it, add it. If not, no worries, it will still be great.

Enjoy these with a glass of bubbly! Happy New Year from My Clean Kitchen!

Local Ingredient: Yellow Eyed Peas from the Farm Market.