15 New Year's Foods For Good Luck

There are a variety of myths as to where the tradition of eating black-eyed peas comes from, but whichever you believe in, they all say the beans will bring good luck in the form of money in the New Year. As the saying goes, if you "eat poor on New Year's, [you'll] eat fat the rest of the year".

Try our black-eyed pea salad (pictured here), our black-eyed pea bruschetta, or our New Year's black-eyed peas to bring prosperity into your home this NYE.

Round desserts, like bundts, donuts, layer cakes, cookies, and more are all believed to bring a full circle of luck in the New Year.

Try our sour cream coffee cake, our mochi donuts (pictured here), our citrus olive oil cake, or our caramel chocolate chip cookie tart to fill your life with continuous luck all year long.

Eating pork on the New Year is supposed to inspire progress throughout the year to come, both because of pig's girthy size (mmm, prosperity) and the fact that they root forward (rather than backward like chickens). On New Year's, pork is often paired with cabbage in the form of sauerkraut, but we say, anything goes.

Try our oven-roasted pulled pork, our sausages and sauerkraut (pictured here), our roast pork tenderloin, or our Instant Pot pork puttanesca to get yourself out of a rut in 2023.

In Ireland, it's said that there are a number of traditions involving bread on New Year's, so many that January 1 is known to some as the "Day Of Buttered Bread." One entails banging bread against a door frame to chase away bad luck, while another invites good luck in by sharing the baking bounty with friends, loved ones, and neighbors.

We know which one we'll be going with—join us in baking some Irish soda bread (ours has chocolate chips!), sourdough, or brioche, all topped with our homemade garlic butter (pictured here), Tuscan butter, or maple butter. Bonus: these are the perfect baking project for that limbo time between Christmas and NYE!

It's traditional to eat hearty greens like cabbage or kale to bring prosperity in the New Year. Traditionally, they're paired with dishes like black-eyed peas and cornbread, or alongside pork in the form of sauerkraut. We say get creative!

Kimchi, Jamaican callalloo, bacon fried cabbage (pictured here), or even a delicious winter salad count in our book, and are sure to help you put more "green" in your pocket all year long.

Sweet or savory cornbread is said to bring prosperity in the New Year (its golden hue literally referring to gold and other riches). Want to take it even further? Add fresh kernels to represent gold nuggets.

Try our classic cornbread, our skillet cornbread (pictured here), our Southern cornbread, or our bacon-topped jalapeño cornbread... heck, a box of Jiffy would do ya if that's all you've got.

Round like a coin, lentils represent good luck around the start of the New Year and beyond. They're also a symbol of abundance, since they increase so much in size when cooked.

Try our lentil salad, our vegan crunchwraps, our lentil dal, our coconut curried lentils (pictured here), or our vegan chipotle lentil tacos to bring you luck (and TONS of fiber and protein, perfect for kick starting any resolutions).

In Spain and Mexico, when the clock strikes midnight, people try to eat 12 grapes as quickly as possible because each grape will bring luck for the 12 months ahead.

Try our sour patch grapes, our Prosecco grapes (pictured here), or our sangria grapes to make yours extra festive.

Super-long noodles are thought to bring long life in the New Year, especially if you can make them without breaking them in half. Any noodle will do, as long as it's long, so break out the rice noodles, the Italian pasta, the ramen noodles... sky's the limit.

Check out our Dan Dan noodles, our creamy steak fettuccine, our miso bolognese (featured here), our tagliatelle with bacon and mushrooms, or our pasta al limone for ideas, then get creative with your favorites.

Pomegranate seeds have always been affiliated with fertility and life. In Greece, the whole fruit is thrown across the floor releasing a sea of seeds that symbolize abundance in the New Year.

If you're not up for making quite that big of a mess, use our tutorial on how to cut a pomegranate, then use them to make our pomegranate martini, our fancy holiday cheese ball (pictured here), our Parmesan Brussels sprouts salad, or our pomegranate mimosa instead.

Fish symbolizes abundance around the world, but the way it's eaten is different depending on where you live. In Asian cultures, people feast on whole fishes around the Lunar New Year, and in Europe, people eat carp, herring, and cod.

We suggest you start a new tradition with one of our favorite fish recipes, like our firecracker salmon, our mahi mahi tacos, our Arctic char with pistachio gremolata (pictured here), or our spicy tuna rolls.

Asian cultures believe that eating oranges and honey on New Year's will bring good fortune, wealth, and money.

Our recipes for fruit salad (pictured here), our jalapeño citrus salmon, or our sheet pan citrus glazed chicken couldn't be any more perfect. They've got slices of fresh orange throughout and are sweetened with orange juice and honey. Bring on the gold.

Popping Champagne to usher in the New Year is a tradition dating back to the 1800s. It was a drink associated with wealth and nobility, so drinking it at midnight (and all night long) is a way to welcome prosperity into your own life for the upcoming year.

You could just drink it straight, but we're big fans of a Champagne cocktail, like our cranberry mimosas, our French 75 (pictured here), our holiday punch, or our Champagne margaritas.

The breaking of a New Year's pretzel (or neujahrsbrezel) for luck and prosperity is a long-time German tradition. It can be eaten either at midnight or for breakfast on New Year's Day. Unlike regular savory pretzels, these are made of a sweet enriched dough, sort of like a babka or brioche.

If you're a pretzel purist, feel free to make our homemade soft pretzels, our cinnamon sugar crunch pretzels (pictured here), or even just go store-bought (maybe alongside some homemade pub cheese or funfetti dip?). What's really important is sharing and breaking them with loved ones (the pretzels also represent interconnectedness), so you do you.

Dumplings are an important part of New Year's traditions from around the world, from Chinese 餃子 (jiao zi) to Russian pelmeni (pictured here). They're shaped like little money pouches or the coins themselves, and are meant to represent prosperity, wealth, and health.

The homemade kind are truly a labor of love, so gather some family members and have everyone help with assembly. And don't worry about getting them perfect-looking—even the wonkiest of the bunch are sure to bring health and wealth in the New Year.