🇸🇪 Sweden and 🇫🇮 Finland · and Finland (Thursday tradition)

ÄrtsoppaSwedish yellow pea soup

The Swedish and Finnish pea soup: dried peas simmered with salted pork and onion, seasoned with marjoram or thyme and served with mustard, traditionally on Thursdays and followed by pancakes.

Origin and history

According to the Swedish national inventory, peas with pork have medieval origins, and serving pea soup on Thursdays is probably based on the Catholic fast on Fridays. Yellow split peas replaced field peas in the mid-1800s, and pancakes have been served with the soup since the 1700s. Finland shares the dish and the custom, which reached it from Sweden.

Make it at home

Makes: 6 servings
Total time: 2 h
Hands-on: 20 min

Ingredients

Metric US

500 g2 1/2 cups dried yellow peas, soaked overnight in plenty of cold water, drained
400 g14 oz lightly salted or smoked pork (shoulder, hock or belly), in one piece; plain pork plus extra salt if no salted pork
1 large onion, chopped
2 litres8 1/2 cups water
2 tsp dried marjoram, or thyme
salt and pepper, to taste
Swedish or Dijon mustard, to serve

Method

1. Put the drained peas, pork and water in a large pot and bring to a boil.
2. Skim off the foam and husks that float up.
3. Add the onion and marjoram, lower to a gentle simmer (about 90 °C / 195 °F), and cook for 1 hour 15 minutes until the peas are soft and starting to fall apart.
4. Lift out the pork, cut it into bite-size pieces, and return it to the pot.
5. Season with salt and pepper (the pork may already be salty, so taste first).
6. Serve hot in bowls with mustard stirred in at the table, and pancakes with jam afterwards.

Notes

Pea soup on Thursday, followed by pancakes, is a Swedish and Finnish custom (hernekeitto in Finland); the pancakes come after, with jam and whipped cream.
Finnish hernekeitto is traditionally made with pork shank, onion and mustard, often with dark rye bread and butter; some cooks add carrots, cream or minced meat.
Older Swedish recipes used field peas, which were considered more bitter; the yellow split pea replaced them in the mid-1800s.
Another Swedish recipe adds a diced carrot with the onion, and ginger is sometimes used alongside marjoram and thyme.
Split peas need no soaking but cook faster; whole yellow peas should be soaked overnight.

Adapted from Swedish National Inventory of Intangible Cultural Heritage: Pea soup and pancakes on Thursdays, Finland.fi, on hernekeitto, and Noorder Nieuws, Swedish yellow pea soup (ärtsoppa).