Pea soup – sometimes hearty, sometimes fine

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Classic pea soup: you need these ingredients

  • Dried peas
  • leek
  • Carrots
  • Potatoes
  • Onions
  • celery
  • Pork belly
  • Bockwurst or Mettwürstchen
  • Bay leaf
  • Vegetable broth
  • some oil for frying

Pea soup: this is how you cook the basic recipe

How to prepare the classic pea soup with bacon:

  1. Soak the dried peas in water overnight.
  2. Then cook for about 30 minutes.
  3. Cut the leek into rings and peel and dice the carrot.
  4. Peel and dice the potatoes and onions as well.
  5. Add the pork belly to the peas and cook for another 30 minutes.
  6. Add the carrots, potatoes and leek and a bay leaf to the pot.
  7. Put the oil in a pan and fry the onions in it.
  8. Then add a piece of celery to the other vegetables in the pot.
  9. Now add the broth and let it cook for half an hour.
  10. Then take out the celery, bacon and bay leaf.
  11. Puree the contents of the pot with a hand blender.
  12. Put the diced pork belly back into the mixture.
  13. Add the sausages and season with pepper to taste.

Pea soup: small product knowledge

Even if we always think so: The pea soup is not a traditional German dish at all. In fact, it is very international and at home in almost every traditional kitchen. For more than 6,000 years there have been reports of pea soup from different parts of Europe. No wonder: peas were widespread and also accessible to the poor sections of the population. And so was the pea soup for a long time frowned upon as a poor people's court. Dried peas had a very long shelf life and were therefore also used by ship crews as provisions. Together with salted meat, plums and fish, the dried legumes made a nutritious food that the seafarers supplied with everything they needed.

Because peas are insanely healthy: they are rich in protein – in fact, they have the highest protein content of all legumes -, Vitamins and fiber. When dried, the protein content of the green and yellow miracles increases from seven to twenty percent! Magnesium, iron, calcium and zinc complete the list of great ingredients that we can look forward to in a pea soup. And that with extremely few calories: contains 100 grams of peas just 80 calories. Reason enough, therefore, to use peas much more often as part of a healthy diet. For example in the form of pea soup.

By the way, there are fresh peas from June to September. They need to soak before cooking – unless you want to peel them. The rest of the year you can use frozen products or dried peas. It's best to use split peas for soups and stews. They have already been freed from their hard shell. The advantage: It only takes about half as long to cooklike their unpeeled counterparts. While peas usually have to be soaked for hours and then cooked for about 90 minutes, you save yourself soaking with split peas and are ready to cook in about 45 minutes.

Recipes for pea soup – traditional and innovative

The recipes for pea soup differ not only according to the type of preparation, but also according to the type of pea. Sometimes green peas are used, sometimes yellow. But the biggest difference is made by the spices and the additions. Depending on the region, there are different types of vegetables in the soup, including potatoes and onions.

The meat additions that give the pea soup the finishing touch are also different. Sometimes bacon belongs in the dish, sometimes cured meat and sometimes it is part of cutting sausages in the soup. There are also big differences in the consistency of the pea soup. Sometimes the peas in the stew are downright firm to the bite, sometimes the soup is creamy and sometimes finely pureed to a pulp.

Pea soup: what spices?

In addition to salt and pepper, marjoram and a bay leaf give the pea soup the perfect aroma. If you want the peas more digestible, give Caraway seeds, ground fennel seeds or anise in the soup. Garnished with something fresh mint or chopped parsley the hearty recipe is refined.

If you've got even more appetite for warming recipes for the cold season, try a hearty chickpea stew with saithe or one of the many delicious soups such as curry lentil soup or pumpkin soup with ginger – just delicious!