Good Luck New Year's Foods
Before you usher in the New Year with a glass of bubbly, make sure you have on hand some of these foods. In a variety of cultures, it is thought that by eating one of these foods on New Year's Eve or Day, you will bring yourself wealth, prosperity, or good fortune, for the New Year (if you really need a dose of good luck, you might want to make them all).
Grapes
Grapes are a predictor of the year ahead. In Spain, people eat 12 grapes at the stroke of midnight to bring them good luck for the next 12 months of the year. Let's just hope your grapes are sweet, for good luck, rather than sour...
Duck Breast with Five Spice and Grapes
From The Daily Meal
This delicious dish comes from world-renowned chef Anita Lo, Executive Chef and Owner of Annisa Restaurant in New York City.
Black-Eyed Peas
It is Southern custom to serve black-eyed peas, like this Hoppin' John salad, on New Year's Day for a prosperous year. Furthermore, it is an inexpensive dish to make, saving you money in the New Year.
Greens
Serve your black-eyed peas with a hearty green vegetable, like kale or collards. These green vegetables are thought to bring you wealth, because of their deep green color, like money.
A simple, Brazilian-style braised collard dish, full of flavor, that transforms the tough collard leaves into something much more meltingly tender.
Lentils
Eating these delicate legumes, shaped like little coins, is an old Italian New Year's custom thought to bring prosperity and wealth.
French Lentil Soup with Sweet Potato Croutons
From The Daily Meal
A simple and delicious soup that, when paired with a green salad and a hearty loaf of bread, makes for a healthy, balanced meal.
Circular Foods
Thought to symbolize things coming full circle, round foods remind us of the circle of life, and that what goes around must come around. Coffee Cake
A sweet breakfast staple. Serve with scrambled eggs and bacon for a hearty meal. For something lighter, have just a slice along with your morning coffee or latte.
Coin-Shaped Foods
Like round foods, coin-shaped foods are also thought to be lucky. Eating foods with a likeness to coins, like round cookies, on New Year's is said to bring you wealth and prosperity. Sliced carrots, with a golden hue similar to copper pennies, are thought to be extremely lucky (especially when tossed in a honey glaze for added sweetness).
A basic chocolate cookie dough used to make rolled cookies. While this recipe calls for a round cookie cutter, you can use any shape you like.
A simple vegetable side dish. Carrot coins are cooked just until tender, then tossed in a honey glaze to enhance the vegetable's sweetness and shine.
Cakes Baked with Coins Inside
In Greece, baking a Vasilopita, a golden-glazed cake, with a coin baked inside is an old New Year's tradition. It is said that whoever finds the coin will have good luck come their way in the New Year.
Vasilopita, or Greek New Year's Cake
A recipe for a basic white cake that is sprinkled with blanched silvered almonds and sesame seeds before baking.
Soba and Noodles
Noodles are an ancient symbol of longevity in the Far East. It is said that the longer the noodle, the longer your life will be.
Soba Noodles with Shrimp, Snow Peas and Carrots
A quick Asian-inspired pasta dish that is full of flavor, not on fat.
Ham and Pork
Pork has long been thought as a food that brings good luck, as pigs root forward (unlike crabs or lobsters, which move sideways or backwards), suggesting forward progress. They are also a rich source of fat. Bring on the bacon for a bountiful New Year!
Covered in a sweet Bourbon and orange-flavored glaze, this ham is the perfect main dish to serve at New Year's dinner parties. Even better? Leftover ham sandwiches on buttermilk biscuits, with honey mustard.