Image credit: kalhh on Pixabay / CC0 / Public Domain

What’s better than a wholesome bowl of filling soup on a cold winter’s day? And it tastes even better the next day!

Ingredients

  • 1 3/4 liters of water
  • 350 g dry green split peas
  • 300 g pork chops (Dutch: Schouderkarbonade)
  • 100 g smoked bacon (cubes)
  • 2/3 tablespoon salt
  • freshly ground black pepper
  • 1/2 bay leaf
  • 1 potato (the kind you use for mashed potatoes)
  • 500g Pea Soup vegetables (carrot, leek, onion, celeriac, celery leaves) I use the 500g bag cut vegetables sold by Albert Heijn
  • 2 smoked Dutch sausages (‘Gelderse rookworst’)

Directions

Wash the split peas in a strainer until the water is clear. Take a big pot and add 1 3/4 liters of water, the washed split peas, the pork chops, the smoked bacon, the bay leaf, salt and peper and cook it for 30 minutes on a small fire, the key to a good soup is to cook it slowly. Stir occasionally.

Peel the potato and cut it into cubes. Add the cubed potato and the pea soup vegetables to the soup and cook slowly for another 30 minutes. Stir occasionally.

Remove the plastic from the sausages and allow them to warm up in the soup for 10 minutes. Do the same for the sausages and the pork chops. Take the bay leaf from the soup. Remove the bones from the pork chops on a cutting board and cut the meat into small pieces. Add the meat back to the soup. Slice the sausages and add them as well. Stir everything to the soup and season with salt and pepper to taste.

It’s traditionally served with rye bread and ‘katenspek’ which is the cheapest kind of bacon sold in The Netherlands.

Pro tip: cook the soup one day early and let it sit overnight to allow the flavors to settle. The soup will taste better the next day!