Whether it's pork, grapes, pomegranate or fish, some of our simplest foods are inadvertently considered to be the luckiest. To add to the list is black-eyed peas, the famed legume (not the American musical group) used in stews, salads and dips. Thanks to Southern superstition and a rich history dating back to the 1700s, the earthy yet creamy white beans are also a popular staple for New Year's dinner.
Black-eyed peas first originated in Africa, although trade routes later introduced them to both Europe and India. Before they were regarded as lucky, the beans earned a poor reputation, commonly associated with "rowdiness that surrounded the year's beginning and end," as noted by Corey Williams in a piece on Allrecipes, and deemed by the Ancient Romans to contain the souls of the dead. By the 1700s, black-eyes peas came to North America via slave ships and were used as food for both livestock and slaves in the South.
