Feed The Resistance: Hoppin’ John For The New Year!

As we head into the New Year, I had to dig out my recipe for an old southern dish that is traditionally served to bring good luck in the new year…it’s Hoppin’ John!  I say “my recipe” – because it’s my take on a recipe that I originally found in “Sundays At Moosewood Restaurant” cookbook, one of the greatest vegetarian cookbooks ever published.  Hoppin’ John is a Black-Eyed Peas dish, and the Moosewood cookbook did a really nice vegetarian version of the dish that me and my wife made every year for New Year’s, back when we were vegetarians.  We still eat a fair amount of vegetarian meals, but we are not strictly vegetarian these days.  When we fell of the wagon several years back, I made some adjustments to the Moosewood recipe, and added a couple of Ham-Hocks and some Andouille Sausage, and served it alongside Collard Greens recipe that I found in Marcus Samuelsson’s “Marcus Off Duty” book.  The collard green recipe is actually a part of a recipe for “Mac & Cheese & Greens” – but for this purpose, I use only the Greens part of the recipe.

To pair with this dish, Miranda wanted something “Celebratory” – so she went with Potosi’s “Wisconsin Holiday” beer…and it worked perfectly!  Happy New Year!