Welcome back to another instalment of #Canada150 recipes. Today we’re talking about the traditional Québécois pea soup!
Traditional Quebecois Recipes
Okay, this soup is old. And by old, I mean old. How old? Well the roots of the Quebec pea soup can be traced back to cargo carried by Champlain. French explorer Samuel de Champlain, the founder of the New France settlement. A man of many hats, Champlain was a navigator, cartographer, draftsman, soldier, explorer, geographer, ethnologist, diplomat, and chronicler.
According to Chef Marc Miron, “When they came to Canada, they didn’t know what to expect so they loaded up their boats with dry beans, cured meats and salted fish; ingredients that would travel well and were nourishing.” Dry beans and cured meats? Hmmmmm, that seems to be the base of the pea soup doesn’t it?! Traditional Quebec pea soup generally consists of dried yellow peas, cubes of salted pork, carrots simmered in water, seasoned with a bay leaf, oh and lard, lots and lots of lard. Fun fact: lard (or animal fat) was much more available to the settlers in New France and much less expensive than imported olive oil. The Canadian Museum of History states that in households from Québec through the Richelieu Valley to Montréal, the consumption rate for lard was five times that of butter. The colonists of New France raised pigs more for the fat than the meat!
The salted pork has its source in French cuisine and in first nations preservation methods. Peas were a classic ingredient in many foods eaten by North American settlers as they were easy to dry, store and ship across the ocean from Europe. Vegetables such as peas, beans, onions, carrots and cucumbers were grown and then they were kept in the root cellar for the winter. People could always rely on soup are filling, nourishing, and warming in the winter made from all of the most common vegetables.
Traditional Pea Soup Recipe
Since I don’t have lard, for my version of Québécois Pea Soup (adapted from Canadian Living) I just use butter and stuck to the core ingredients. I’m using the 5.2L Staub Round Cocotte (aka French Oven – a french oven for a french soup lol) to make my Québécois Pea Soup. I personally found removing the skin and fat from the ham hock to be the most difficult.
Québécois Pea Soup
Ingredients
- 1 lb unsmoked ham hock, skin and fat removed
- 3 tablespoons butter
- 5 carrots, diced
- 1 onion, diced
- 5 cloves garlic, minced
- 2 cups dried yellow split peas
- 2 bay leaves
- salt, to taste
- pepper, to taste
Instructions
- Trim off and discard skin from ham hock; set hock aside.
- In large dutch/french oven, melt butter over medium heat; cook carrots, onion and garlic, stirring occasionally, 10-15 minutes or until it has softened.
- Stir in split peas, bay leaves, salt and pepper; cook, stirring for a minute.
- Stir in 8 cups water before adding your ham hock. Don't be like me and accidentally drop it causing a splash.
- Bring to everything to a boil before reducing the heat then cover and simmer, stirring occasionally for 2 hours. Peas should soften and soup thickened.
- Take out the bay leaves to toss and place aside the ham hock. Once cooled, remove the meat from the bone, discarding bone and any fat, and return the meat back to soup. Heat through again and then serve.
Notes
Nutrition Per Serving
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Christina Bauer
What a neat history lesson! I used to LOVE split pea & ham soup, but now I just do without the ham :)
Abbey Sharp
I love a good Canadian history lesson. This soups looks soooo good. Thanks for the recipe!
[email protected]
Cool history with this one!
Carmy
Thanks!
Lucie | Run Mommy Run
French Canadian pea soup almost always comes after a holiday dinner in my family. It’s what we do with leftover ham and we throw in the ham bone for extra flavour. Habitant pea soup is still one of my favorites though! :)
Glen
I made the soup yesterday and really enjoyed it. Great recipe!
Carmy
Thanks! Glad you liked it!
Joycelyn
Nice recipe but I’d be adding the traditional addition of thyme and savory for added flavour as that’s the way pea soup has been made in my family for as long as I can remember.
Also have add, I found the fact you recommended a Staub 5.5 qt. cocotte for the soup, one of the most expensive pots on the market more than a bit shocking even though I know Staub like the other sponsors on your site contribute a stipend to help keep your site going.
Really, when it comes down to it, any pot will do for making soup as long as it’s big enough.
Carmy
Hi Joycelyn. In my post, I simply share that I am using the 5.2 L Staub that I own. I do not insist that the soup must be cooked in it. However, I highly recommend using a heavy bottomed pot as I don’t believe just any pot will do for making soup. This soup simmers for 2 hours and you want a pot that is well made and will be able to stand the cook time and heat the soup evenly. I own budget pots that I purchased years ago as well and I can tell you that they would not be able to simmer a soup for 2 hours. Well made soup pots such as Dutch ovens/Staub are considered conductive when they can transfer heat evenly across the bottom and up the side so it cooks the way it is supposed to. I hope you have a wonderful day and enjoy this pea soup!