Sweden's National Soup

Pea soup with pork could be considered Sweden's national soup. While only eaten on Thursdays in Sweden, the soul-warming, comforting meal in a bowl is good any night of the week. According to Kristi Bissell, whose recipe and images we’ve used here, this soup can be on your table in about an hour. 

  • Kristi Bissell

  • Pea soup with pork has come to be something of a Swedish "national dish," if such a thing is possible, and is consumed in almost ritualistic form — always and exclusively on Thursdays.
    If a Swedish restaurant were to serve pea soup with pork on a Tuesday, for example, any right-lined Swede would clutch his brow and conclude that the owner must either be a foreigner or have taken leave of his senses.

  • Kristi Bissell

  • Pea soup with pork just can't be eaten on any day but Thursday. This fixation goes back a long way, and undoubtedly arose in the Middle Ages when Swedes were still Catholics. Friday was a day of fasting, and it was natural to lay in supplies against the privations of the fast. So the habit developed of eating your everyday salt pork on Thursday, along with the best they had available in those days, namely, neither the fibrous root vegetables nor the watery cabbage, but boiled dried peas. By the time Swedes turned Lutheran in the 16th century, Thursdays and pea soup had become so wedded together that 450 years on we still sit there eating our pea soup on Thursdays.

  • Could anything better illustrate the persistent nature of eating traditions, particularly with a bit of ritual tacked on? There are many workplaces where a group of friends sally forth regularly on Thursdays to eat their pea soup together, not seldom accompanied by the obligatory glass of warm Swedish punsch, itself a relic of an earlier age, if not quite so remote.

  • Excerpted from an article by Jan-Öjvind Swahn, professor of folklore in Lund, Sweden.

  • Swedish Pea Soup with Ham (Ärtsoppa)
    Ingredients
    2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
    1 onion diced small
    8 ounces ham steak or cooked deli ham cut in ½- inch cubes
    1 tablespoon chopped fresh marjoram or thyme
    1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
    1/4 teaspoon ground allspice
    2 cups yellow split peas picked over and rinsed
    2 carrots peeled and diced small
    4 cups low-sodium chicken broth
    3 cups water, more if needed
    1/4 teaspoon baking soda
    1 bay leaf
    coarse salt and freshly ground pepper
    juice of half a lemon, more to taste

    chopped fresh parsley for garnish, optional

  • Instructions
    Heat oil in a large pot over medium heat. Add the onion and cook, stirring occasionally, until tender and beginning to brown, about 5 minutes. Add ham, marjoram, ginger and allspice and cook for an additional minute.
    Add split peas, broth, water, carrots, baking soda and bay leaf to the pot. Bring to a boil, then reduce to a simmer. Continue to cook until peas are nearly tender, about 35 minutes. Using a potato masher or fork, mash the soup mixture to break up some of the peas and create a thicker texture. Continue cooking until the peas are very soft, about 10-15 minutes, adding more water as necessary to keep the soup from becoming too thick.
    Remove the bay leaf. Add lemon juice and season the soup to taste with salt and pepper. Serve, topped with chopped fresh parsley if desired.

  • Substitutions:
    - Use split green peas in place of the yellow peas. Cooking times will be similar.
    - Use cooked, chopped bacon or sausage in place of the ham.
    - Substitute 1 teaspoon of dried marjoram or thyme for the fresh herbs called for in the recipe.
    - For a vegetarian version, omit the ham entirely or consider swapping in a meat substitute (such as a vegan sausage) if you like.
    - There’s no substitute for Swedish punsch if you’re looking to add another element of Swedishness to the meal. We strongly suggest the Swedish developed and made Kronan, available in most liquor stores in the U.S. (www.kronanpunsch.com)

  • Kristi suggests Swedish pancakes for dessert for the full traditional experience and continues with, “you can also serve cooked sausages (along with a dollop of mustard) with the soup. My favorite thing to serve with this hearty pea soup is a tasty bread that is suitable for dipping.” You’ll find several suitable breads to bake at home at Kristi’s website true-north-kitchen.com -Swedish limpa, Kavring and a variety of crisp breads.

  • Notes:
    For ease of digestion and a slightly quicker cooking time, you can soak the split peas in cold water for at least 8-10 hours or overnight. Drain the split peas in a fine mesh strainer and rinse with cold water before proceeding with the recipe. That said, it's not necessary to soak your split peas.
    Storage: This soup will keep tightly covered in the refrigerator for 3 or 4 days. It also freezes well, so for longer storage simply transfer the cooled soup to a freezer safe container or bag and seal tightly. The soup will keep frozen for a couple months.
    The soup will thicken considerably as it cools. Feel free to add more broth or water as necessary to loosen it up or when reheating leftovers.