Yellow Pea Soup is one of my favorite Swedish dishes. The peas are hard to find and the only place I have been able to find them is at IKEA. I like to go to IKEA before the holidays to pick up things in the food market. I picked up a bag of yelllow peas and I made it for dinner the other day.
I have lived away from Sweden for many years and from time to time I crave some Swedish food. It was really hard for me to give up my Swedish food traditions the first couple of years living abroad. I spent a lot of time and money to try to find ingredients in specialty stores. I learned after living in several countries that I have to improvise and adapt to what the current country I live in has to offer. I tried too hard to keep my ways instead of embracing new ways of doing things. It doesn't mean that I don't keep my Swedish traditions, it just means that I adjust them and mix them with the American traditions.
Yellow Pea Soup has been a Thursday supper tradition for hundreds of years in Sweden. On Thursdays in Sweden you can buy this soup at restaurants and cafeterias. Schools normally serve it at least on Thursday a month.
Here is the original recipe. I used ham hocks instead of pork ribs. I normally don't eat pork, but for my pea soup I added it to enhance the flavor. The peas are not organic, but everything else is organic.
Yellow Pea Soup
1 bag of yellow peas (I got my 18oz bag from Ikea)
1 LB of pork ribs (optional)
1 yellow onion
3 tsp salt (I didn't add any salt)
1 tsp marjoram or thyme ( I added both)
Rinse the peas and soak the overnight in 5 cups of water. Discard water. Pour 2 quarts of water over the peas. Cook together with pork, onions, salt, and marjoram on low heat for about 1 1/2 hours or until the shells of peas split.
Serving
Many Swedes add mustard.
On Tuesday I will share about our special Swedish treat, and how Paola made a healthier version.
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