Hernekeitto-Pea Soup

Finnish split pea soup
 

Prep time: 15 minutes

Cook time: 2 hours

Total time: 2 hours, 15 minutes

Makes 6-8 servings

Ingredients
 8 cups water

500 grams dried whole green peas

300 smoked ham

1 bay leaf

1 onion

1 -2 teaspoon salt

Pepper, paprika to taste

Potatoes (optional)

Carrots (optional)

Rice or barley (optional)
 

Directions
 
 Clean and drain peas using a collander.

Add water and peas to a large pot and begin simmering on medium high heat.

Slice onion and add to pot.

Add ham to pot.

Add salt, pepper, and bay leaf.

Boil soup until the peas begin to split (this takes about 2 hours). If you leave them on a high boiling point longer, you can cut off about 20 minutes. If you are using potatoes or carrots, you can dice them and add them at this point.

After the ham is fully cooked, cut the ham into smaller bite size pieces and add back into the soup. Add salt as desired and taste as the peas cook – they will absorb some of the salt so you may need to keep adding more as they continue cooking.
 

Hernekeitto Finnish split pea Soup, vegetarian/vegan version
 
 Take away the ham, the soup is still very tasty. Or when the soup is ready towards the end, you can add the vegan ham - there is a variety of vegan ham in the supermarkets made from soy, or wheat, or perhaps quorn in smoked version too.  

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