Collards: A Southern Superstition

The New Year means resolutions for most of the country. But in the South, it also means it’s time to cook collards. Eating collards and black eye peas on New Year’s Day is a southern tradition, or really a superstition.

Collards represent cash, and black eye peas represent cents. If you eat both on New Year’s Day, you’ll make lots of money in the upcoming year, or so the superstition goes. And just so you’re prepared to make lots of money in the New Year, below is my mom’s recipe for cooking collards, with some photos of her collards at Christmas. She cooks them like my grandma used to, frying them after boiling them.

Have a Happy New Year and don’t forget to eat your collards and black eye peas!

Here’s my mom’s recipe that she learned from my grandma:

1. Cut the leaf off of the main vein that runs through the leaf. They seem to cook better if I have a large amount of leaves to cook at one time.
2. If any of the little veins that runs through the leaf is of any size, I cut the leaf from around those also.
3. Once I have my leaves, I wash them several times.
4. Then using a large large pot, I boil the leaves until they get really soft (I usually cook for an hour or so)
5. Then drain the leaves good to get rid of excess water.
6. Then with my hand chopper, I chop the leaves up really small.
7. Then in a large frying pan I put oil (enough to cover the pan but not deep).
8. Place collards in pan to begin cooking process.
9. Sprinkle some sugar over the collards and stir.
10. Once they start cooking I turn heat down and cover with a lid. Keep checking. Sometimes I keep adding a little oil and sugar.

Do not let them dry out when cooking (Keep moist with oil). I let them cook slow for a while. Many people do not add the sugar, but that is the way we like them.