Recipe and Photo by Mackenzie Smith

I spent a lot of time planning for 2019 by outlining goals, talking about what I want this year to look like, and doing a lot of laundry to make sure we were headed into the new year with clean things to wear. But making the stewed black-eyed peas and collard greens and pomegranate seeds I am so excited about every year completely slipped my mind this time around. I blame it on the baby.

I love the tradition of eating black-eyed peas and collard greens to bring good luck and fortune into the new year, so even though I didn’t want to go to the store for fresh or dried black-eyed peas to stew on New Year’s day, I wasn’t about to head into 2019 without these good luck foods in my belly.

Instead of a hot pot of beans and greens, I made spicy, marinade with olive oil, lime, garlic, and hot sauce, and stirred in cubed avocados and a can black-eyed peas from the back of my pantry. Then I rooted through the fridge to find what else needed to be eaten. Cooked quinoa and the last of a roasted chicken were top priority, so I spooned both onto fresh collards from our CSA, added the black-eyed pea + avocado salsa and threw a hefty sprinkle of mint, cilantro, and pecans, wrapped it up into a pocket.

Photography by Mackenzie Smith.

I’ve been so into this combo since January 1 that I have gone to the store for more black-eyed peas and avocado to make it again and again. You should, too!

You’ll need:

• 2 collard leaves per person
• Cooked grains
• Spicy Lime Avocado Black Eyed Pea Salsa
• Leftover roast chicken, shredded
• Herbs
• Pecans

Spicy Lime Avocado Black Eyed Pea Salsa

• 2 tablespoons of olive oil
• Juice from half a lime
• Half a clove of garlic, grated
• Hot sauce
• Salt to taste
• 1 avocado, sliced into cubes
• 1 can of black-eyed peas

Make black-eyed pea salsa, and have some with a few chips! While snacking, remove tough stems from collards, and place one on top of the other to cover the split in the leaves. Add a generous scoop of quinoa, then the black-eyed pea salsa, then the chicken, the herbs, and the pecans. That’s it!