Cooking for the Swedes onboard? One piece of advise I can give you, stick with their traditions!
Here’s a bit of history about Ärtsoppa;
As Finland was until 1809 part of the Swedish Realm, Sweden and Finland share many cultural traditions, including that of the pea soup (Swedish ärtsoppa; Finnish hernekeitto ; Norwegian ertesuppe; Danish gule ærter).
In Sweden and Finland it is traditional to eat pea soup on Thursdays, served with pork and mustard, and pancakes for dessert, in Sweden sometimes accompanied by Swedish punsch as beverage. In Finland the soup is made of green peas, in Sweden yellow.

Photo by Nino Almendra
The tradition of eating pea soup and pancakes on Thursdays is said to originate in the pre-Reformation era, as preparation for fasting on Friday.
Scandinavian pea soup normally includes pieces of pork – although it may sometimes be served on the side – and a typical recipe would also include some onion and herbs such as thyme and marjoram.

Seasoned with Grainy Mustard
It is usually eaten with some mustard, often accompanied by crisp bread and often with the sweet liquor punsch (served hot). Mustard is an important part of the dish, but the soup is served without it so that diners can stir it in to taste.
The soup is then normally followed by pancakes with jam (strawberry, raspberry, blueberry, cloudberry or similar) which are regarded more as part of the meal than as a dessert.

Photo by Nino Almendra
Pea soup is also often served to large crowds in gatherings, simply because it is easy to make in large amounts and most people like it to some extent. In Finland and Sweden it is a popular school food, being very low cost and easy to prepare. (History of Ärtsoppa, Ref: Wikipedia)
A tradition dating back to World War II, Pea soup with pancakes is served
every Thursday in the Swedish Armed Forces and the Finnish Defense Forces.

Photo by Nino Almendra
Recipe by one of my Cooking Heroes:
Merchant Navy Chiefcook Wiberg Hasse
* As promised from last week’s post. I will share a surprise recipe for my 1st Food post on my 2nd year! =)
Now on with the cooking…
Ärtsoppa (Swedish Yellow Pea Soup)
Soaking time: Overnight{ for the yellow peas}
Prep. time: 10 minutes
Cooking time: 1 hour and 30 minutes
Difficulty: Easy
Makes; 5 liters thick soup
Good for 12 crew
You will need;
2 cups (500grms) Yellow peas, soak in 2 liters of water overnight.
1 pc (1.5kg) Pork hock/knuckle-whole piece,no need to cut
4 liters soup stock or water
1 medium Onion,whole tack with 8 pieces of whole cloves
2 medium Onion,finely chopped
2 large Carrots,whole peeled
1 thumbsize (50grms) Ginger,peeled and sliced 1 cm across the grain.
1 teaspoon Dried Thyme
2 tbs #Seasonin to taste {or Seasalt and freshly ground black pepper.}
1 teaspoon Senap (Swedish grainy mustard) French Dijon mustard is also a good substitute.
Direction;
Wash and drain soaked yellow peas.
In a large soup pot,put the first 6 ingredients. Bring to a boil on very high heat, then simmer on low heat until pork is tender and yellow peas is softened.
Discard whole onion tacked with cloves. Take out pork and transfer in a chopping board, let it cool down before deboning and cutting it into dice. Discard the pork hock bones.
Tranfer cooked whole carrots, sliced fresh ginger and 2 cups of cooled yellow pea soup in a blender. Let it liquify. Pour it back to the soup pot.
Add the diced cooked pork hock meat. Add dry thyme, mustard and #Seasonin. Garnish with freshly cut parsley.
Enjoy your meal !!! 😉
Note: Pork hocks in Sweden is normally salted. Season soup after pork had been added back.
Here’s how I do it;
STEP ONE

STEP TWO
STEP THREE
Enjoy your meal !!! 😉

Photo by Nino Almendra
Thanks alot for spending your precious time on my blog and hope this recipe encourage
you to try cooking Ärtsoppa for your Swedish crew onboard or for your love ones at home.
Believe me, they will thank you.
All Bloggers are welcome to join the party, it is hosted by
Angie of “The Novice Gardener”
Come All You Party People!!!
You can also follow me on TWITTER, GOOGLE+ and FACEBOOK.
*Products that are mentioned/used on this post are for illustration purposes only and do not imply that they are endorsed by icookonboard.com.
This post is respectfully dedicated to MADIBA,
as the world marks what would have been his 96th birthday today.
NELSON MANDELA have been a big inspiration to me.
His words, good deeds and strong will to achive freedom under any circumstances.
This is my favourite soup!!! I make it all the time!!!
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Then we have something in common.
Enjoy, Maiu! 🙂
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I cannot believe my eyes, you have cooked hernekeitto 🙂 !!? I wouldn’t have thought that anyone outside Scandinavia knows it (or would like it)!
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Wonderful quote from Mandela.
We use yellow-split-peas in Persian cooking too. This soup with touch of mustard sounds very delectable. Wonderful!
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I would love to know some Persian recipe using yellow split pea.
Thanks for visiting, Fae! 🙂
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The most famous one being the “yellow-split-pea stew”, which I will post someday soon (nothing like Indian dish). But for now, check out my ‘Recipe Index’… I have them in all my ‘dolmeh’ recipes and “stew, apple”.
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I will! 🙂
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So much history and tradition in a soup recipe! Thank you for this very interesting post!
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You are very welcome. Saucy Gander! =)
Thank you for reading my post.
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🙂 Cooking lesson, history lesson, and a dose of inspiration. That soup looks yummy. Very impressive that your repertoire crosses different international lines, Nino! Should you and your wife ever set up shop anywhere on land, you must let us all know.
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I’m not good in putting up business. But me and my wife are quite a good host, we’ll be honored to have you as our guest if ever you go back in Manila. 🙂
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I love making, and eating, pea soup, but you have given me some good ideas here – especially the addition of grainy or Dijon mustard. And thanks for the story behind the soup. Knowing the traditions behind a recipe is always interesting. Thanks for sharing.
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Thanks Hilda, knowing history behind the recipe makes it more fun to cook it. 🙂
Glad you like it!
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[…] Nino […]
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Love the sound of that mustard stirred into the soup! I’m going to try that next time I make pea soup. Pancakes look so yum! Look more like crepes, but still yum! 🙂
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