How to Make Homemade Split Pea Soup from Scratch

With the winter in full swing in the Midwest, it means its soup time. One of my all time favorite winter warm ups is Homemade Split Pea Soup from Scratch.

The History of Pea Soup:
Pea soup has been eaten since early ages and it’s heartiness, high nutrition value and low-cost has made it part of the cuisine in many cultures. The soup is typically made from dried peas that vary in color from grayish-green to yellow depending on the regional variety and cooked with various root vegetables and pork to add flavor.

In Britain, “Pease” is used as the singular and plural form of the word pea. Pease pudding was a low-cost high-protein food staple and it was easy to store dried peas. Before the nineteenth century this was an ideal food for sailors to boil with salt pork, which became the origins of pea soup.

Nineteenth century literature makes several references to eating pea soup as a simple food for farmers and a sign of poverty:

In Canada, split pea soup is made with yellow peas and it very popular nationwide.

Split pea soup in Germany is also very common, containing meats such as bacon, sausage or smoked pork and served with a dark rye bread.

“Snert” is the Dutch version of pea soup. It is a thicker stew of split peas, pork and various vegetables. In the winter many outdoor food stalls will serve hot “snert” as a hearty snack along frozen canals and lakes for skaters.

In Poland pea soup is the popular food to serve in the military since it is nutritious, cheap and can be easily prepared in large quantities. It is said that military pea soup is thick enough to hold a spoon straight up.

In Sweden and Finland it became traditional to eat pea soup with pork and pancakes on Thursdays as a preparation for fasting on Fridays. Mustard is also an important part to serve with the pea soup so diners can stir it in to taste. Even the Swedish and Finnish Armed Forces have been following this Thursday tradition since World War 2.

In the United States, pea soup was introduced in New England during the 19th Century by French-Canadian millworkers. It was widely eaten in the colonial period and served as a thinner soup with pork, carrots and dried split peas.

500 to 400 BC: The Greeks and Romans were cultivating this legume about 500 to 400 BC. During that era, vendors in the streets of Athens were selling hot pea soup.

1765: A well-known nursery rhyme first appeared speaking of Pease porridge in Britain:

Pease porridge hot,
Pease porridge cold,
Pease porridge in the pot Nine days old.

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