Thick as pea soup

Gray fog and clouds as dense as mid-winter lambs’ wool filled the sky, while rain poured down in buckets, helping Seattle live up to its reputation as the ‘rain city.’ During the dark, dank days that seem to stretch on forever, I start dreaming about soup. And this past weekend, one soup in particular: pea soup.

Back in 1980, when I studied abroad in the Netherlands, I lived in the home of a 72-year-old woman whom I affectionately called, ‘Oma.’ Oma made the best darn pea soup I’d ever had. Hers was a soup that changed my idea of what pea soup was possible of being.

“So thick you can stand your spoon straight up in it,” is what she would say as she served up a bowlful of her stupendous soup. Pea soup which is called ‘erwtensoep’ or ‘snert,’ by the Dutch is a thick stew chock-full of green split peas, different cuts of pork, celeriac or stalk celery, onions, leeks, carrots, and often potato. Slices of rookworst (Dutch smoked sausage) are added a few minutes before serving. It is customarily served with rye bread (roggebrood) topped with bacon, cheese or butter. The bacon is always ‘katenspek’, bacon which has first been cooked before being smoked. It’s a one-stop shop of a soup if there ever was one.

Erwtensoep is traditionally eaten during the winter and is emblematic of Dutch cuisine. You can even find the soup at ‘koek en zopie’ outlets, small food and drinks stalls which pop up during wintertime along frozen canals, ponds and lakes in the Netherlands, and cater to ice skaters.

During my recent trip to Amsterdam, a bowl of “echte” (authentic) erwtensoep was one of my “top ten” food treats to hunt down and savor. On my last night there, I found it and ordered up a bowl with a snifter of korenwijn (aged Dutch gin). Both did their job to bring back happy memories and take the chill out of my bones on that cold, windy night.

I made the soup for Big Papa on Sunday. Pumpernickel bread from Tall Grass Bakery stood in for the roggebrood and added a touch of molasses sweetness as we dunked and nibbled. We washed down our pea soup with a delicious hard cider, Bellwether, ‘King Baldwin,’ which we brought back home after a trip to visit relatives in upstate New York.  It’s light fizz and dry apple flavors perfectly complimented the soup. And, Oma would have been proud. Our spoons stood straight and tall! Even our cat was impressed.

Erwtensoep

• 4 bacon slices, chopped*
• ½-1 small onion, chopped
• 1-2 medium leek (white and pale green parts only), sliced
• 1-2 large carrots, peeled, chopped
• ½ cup chopped celeriac (celery root – peel skin and then chop) or 2 stalks celery, chopped
• 1-2 garlic cloves, minced
• 4-14 1/2-ounce cans low-salt chicken(or veggie) broth*
• 1-1/4 cups green split peas, rinsed and soaked overnight (I soaked mine for four hours and they were fine)
• 2 bay leaves
• 3-4 small potatoes, chopped (optional: I used Yellow Finn)
• 2-3 smoked sausages (Dutch preferred, otherwise, German Bratwurst-style), cooked and sliced (1/2 inch slices)*

Preparation

Sauté bacon in heavy large pot over medium-high heat until crisp and brown. Add onion, leek, carrot, celeriac and garlic and sauté until vegetables begin to soften, about 6 minutes. Add broth, peas, and bay leaves and bring soup to boil. Reduce heat to medium-low, cover and simmer until peas are tender, stirring occasionally, about 1 hour. While soup is brewing, cook sausage in a separate pan, slice and set aside. Add sausage and cook for another half-hour. Soup should be thick and peas “decomposed.” Season soup to taste with salt and pepper.

*Vegetarian Note: You can make this recipe vegetarian-friendly by omitting the bacon and sausage, or instead, adding the vegetarian equivalent.

Want to spoon in some more? Check out Wanderfood Wednesday!