Hoppin Will Recipe -

Meet Hoppin Will – Hoppin John’s Younger Brother

Contents hide

1 Meet Hoppin Will – Hoppin John’s Younger Brother

2 Hoppin John History

3 How To Serve

4 Hoppin’ Will Recipe

5.1 Before You Go, Check Out These Other Recipes:

This dish is a variation of Hoppin John a traditional New Year’s dish, so we traded black-eyed peas for pinto beans and made Hoppin’ Will . This dish is SOOOO good! Super easy to make, and spicy which in our book is always a plus.

Hoppin John History

The first written documentation of Hoppin John was in “The Carolina Housewife” or “House and Home” back in 1847 listed then as “Hopping John”. It is a southern tradition going back to the 1840’s where it is attributed to several sources. One said that children were to hop around the table when it was brought out. Other oral traditions connect it with a man that would sell it as a street food in Charleston South Carolina and others say it was named for a greeting of the area to say to your guests “Hop in, John” or a man who came hopping when his bride called him to dinner.

It is said to bring luck to those that consume it so it is eaten at midnight in the south. The black eyed peas are symbols or coins or pennies, greens are money and tomatoes good health. Throw in cornbread and that symbolizes gold in your future.

Now I don’t know if it is lucky but Hoppin’ John sure tastes good and so does this Hoppin Will recipe.

How To Serve

We served it over a bed of rice but it would be great on its own or on a bed of cauliflower rice or with chips.