24 Recipes for a New Year's Day Brunch (2024)

FAQs

What is the traditional New Year's Day menu? ›

According to Southern lore, you will have good luck for the entire year if you have the traditional New Year's Day supper. In the South, that means a meal of collard greens, hoppin' John, black-eyed peas, cornbread, and pot likker soup.

Popular brunch menu items include eggs Benedict, pancakes, waffles, French toast, omelettes, avocado toast, breakfast sandwiches, pastries, and fruit salads.

Some of the most common brunch menu items include: 1. Eggs: You can serve fried eggs, eggs Benedict, omelets, and even breakfast burritos at brunch. 2. Bread: French toast, pancakes, waffles, and other bread-based dishes, like burgers and sandwiches, are popular brunch foods.

Black-eyed peas: These legumes are traditionally eaten in the Southern US for good luck and fortune in the new year. Lentils and beans: Similar to black-eyed peas, lentils and beans symbolize wealth and abundance in various cultures. Round foods: Donuts, cakes, and other round-shaped foods represent "full.

Black-Eyed Peas

They are popular New Year food traditions in the southern United States, often served after midnight or New Year's Day. Black-eyed peas are an ingredient in a popular American dish called Hoppin' John. The dish includes a mixture of rice, pork, and black-eyed peas with a side of cornbread.

Pork. Pork is thought to bring good luck on New Year's Day. According to some theorists, a pig buries his snout into the ground and moves forward in the direction you want to head in the new year. Pork that is eaten on New Year's is a German and Eastern European tradition brought to America by early settlers.

French toast, waffles, pancakes, and similar dishes are great choices for brunch. You could also do something even more impressive like apple pecan or ultimate berry bread pudding. Add some parfaits for a lighter option that pairs well with these dishes.

Depending on the size of your gathering, you'll want to pick at least one but perhaps two main entrees. This will set the tone for your brunch menu. You could plan to serve one sweet dish and one savory dish. Or you could plan one breakfast item and one lunch item.

Eating pork on the New Year is supposed to inspire progress throughout the year to come, both because of pig's girthy size (mmm, prosperity) and the fact that they root forward (rather than backward like chickens). On New Year's, pork is often paired with cabbage in the form of sauerkraut, but we say, anything goes.

What do Southerners cook for new year's Day? ›

There are always 3 classic recipes on every Southern New Year's Day menu. They are pork, greens, and black-eyed peas. Some folks throw in a fourth – cornbread – but for me, it's the perfect thing to go along with the other three.

Brunch gained steady popularity because it was economic – a two-in-one meal with special touches not afforded during the week. Oatmeal for the rest of the week, but bacon, waffles, fruit, jams, and coffee on Sunday.