Still hoping for some of that New Year luck

I didn't grow up with any great New Year traditions.  A typical year in my childhood home would be rung in with a movie, maybe a party with my parents' friends and a few of mine, and, on the rare occasion that we remembered to switch it on in time, the times square countdown on Dick Clark's New Year's Rockin' Eve.  It wasn't until I was in college that I knew some people have unbreakable traditions for new year's eve; the most interesting to me is always the food choices that people use to bring luck and good fortune in the coming year.  In the South, there are some pretty strong food traditions -- collards for money, black eyed peas for luck, pork for ... heart disease? (I'm not sure about that one).  I love greens and black eyed peas, so I always mean to have a hearty meal to ring in some good tidings for the new year, but I always manage to forget.  What are you supposed to eat for memory?

Fast forward to the end of February.  I found a 1 lb bag of cleaned, chopped collards at the store last week for $1.29.  This was a deal that I just couldn't pass up, but I didn't want to go with the usual collard recipe.  The first place I go when I have an ingredient and want to try something new is The Fat Free Vegan.  As always, Susan didn't disappoint.  I found this great soup recipe that included both collards and black eyed peas.  I don't know if you can retroactively get new year's luck, but I'm happy to try it with this soup.

* Susan's picture is WAY more appetizing than mine ... *

Using a pressure cooker made the soup quick to cook.  With a minimal number of chopped ingredients, even prep was quick and easy.  My only word of warning is to put rice on to cook when you start cooking the soup.  You definitely want to eat the soup with rice (I used a combination of brown and wild rice) for a hearty meal.  I highly recommend this soup for a filling, healthy, and possibly lucky dinner.

After posting this, I came across the Blog Bites challenge on One Hot Stove, so this is my pressure cooker-using entry!  Keep checking One Hot Stove all month (until March 26th) to see how other people use their pressure cookers, slow cookers, and rice cookers :)