Yellow split-pea soup is one of the very traditional Quebec dishes (along with tourtière and anything made from maple syrup). I have friends whose parents grew up poor and rural enough to remember having eaten it every day through the winter as children. I’ve never liked it much, but I’ve also never had it home-made, only out of a can. So I thought I’d give it a fair try by making some. I bought a package of organic yellow split-peas, and (mostly) followed the recipe for “Finnish Golden Split Pea Soup” from Moosewood Cooks for a Crowd (making the necessary adjustments to serve 6 rather than 50).
Finnish Yellow Split Pea Soup
- 1 cup yellow split peas
- 2 cups vegetable stock or water
- 3-4 medium potatoes, cubed
- 1 medium turnip, cubed
- 4 parsnips, chopped
- 2 medium onions, diced
- ½ teaspoon each of allspice, cumin, marjoram, salt
- 1 teaspoon dry mustard powder or strong mustard
- 1 tablespoon olive oil or other cooking oil
- black pepper to taste
I make most of my soups, including this one, in a slow cooker / crock-pot, but I’ve included instructions for making it on the stove top as well:
- Use a frying pan if you’re going to be making the soup in a slow-cooker. Use a large, heavy-bottomed soup pot if you’re going to be making the soup on the stove top.
- Fry the onions in the oil until they begin to soften. Add the spices and cook a few minutes more.
- If using the slow cooker, dump the fried onions & spices, and all other ingredients into the slow cooker and cook on high for at least 2 hours or low for at least 4 hours. If cooking on the stove top, add the split peas and stock, and bring to the boil. Add the rest of the ingredients and simmer for 45 minutes to an hour.
- Add extra stock or water during cooking if the soup gets too thick so that it doesn’t scorch.
Our evaluation of this recipe was “OK, but not great.” The split peas didn’t soften as much as I wanted / expected them to. The original recipe calls for celery and carrots in addition to the other vegetables. It also calls for puréeing the soup and adding the herbs & spices to the purée at the end, during re-heating.
I think next time I will pre-cook the split peas by pouring boiling water over them and letting them soak for a couple of hours before putting them in the crock pot. I may also try the spices from the recipe for “North African Split Pea” soup (6 pages later in the same book) instead. This soup need more interest and “kick” before it gets added to our regular soup rota.
out here 
My mother suggests adding some finely-chopped cabbage to bring the flavour out in a pea soup. It cooks down to nothing, so it’s not noticeable, but it adds a nice flavour. Your kitchen will smell of cabbage, though.
(And I suppose if you’re concerned for texture, you can use whole cabbage leaves and lift them out later.)
Thanks for this pointer, I’ll definitely try it. Chopped small enough, texture won’t be a problem 🙂
For a carnivorous and Quebecois variant, fry up some chunks of ham and liberally spoon the soup into the pan once the chunks are nicely browned.