Swedish Pea Soup & Pancakes (Thank God It’s Thursday!)

It’s Thursday!  In the U.S. that just means we’ve made it over the hump, the weekend is so close you can smell it.  To the Swedes?  It means pea soup and pancakes, of course! (I talked a little bit about the tradition in my Taste of Sweden post, but now I’ll show you how they’re made!)  The tradition dates back to the 15th century when Sweden was primarily Catholic and a large meal was served the night before the Friday fast. Pea soup and pancakes is still served on Thursdays in restaurants and workplace cafeterias, as well as in the Swedish military.  As a culture and tradition-driven foodie, of course I had to try it! Unfortunately, the only Thursday I was in Stockholm was New Years Day, and these were a bit hard to find.  This turned out to be for the best, because it meant we got to try our hand at making a traditional Swedish dish!

Alli found a recipe, and we called in Mike to help with the chopping and advise on how the dish is traditionally served.  And I’ll be honest, it turned out awesome!  I will definitely make this again sometime we are craving comfort food on a cold night or missing our friends in Stockholm!

Swedish Pea Soup & Pancakes

What you need:

• 1 recipe pea soup (see below)
• Mildly sweetened whipped cream (homemade or store bought)
• Lingonberry jam (widely available on Amazon.com)
• 8-12 Swedish pancakes*

*The pancakes are thin, almost crepe-like.  In Sweden, pre-made pancakes are widely available in the refrigerated section in grocery stores.  In the U.S. you can find them frozen at IKEA, buy the mix on Amazon, or make them from scratch.

To Serve: Simply serve the soup as described below and serve the pancakes on a separate plate, warm and topped with lingonberry jam and whipped cream. Some folks prefer to eat their soup first and enjoy the pancakes as dessert, while others see the pancakes as a side dish to be eaten at the same time.

For the Soup:

Ingredients:

• 1 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
• 2 cups chopped onions
• 1-1/2 cups chopped carrots
• ¼ tsp freshly cracked black pepper
• 1-1/3 cups dried yellow split peas, rinsed*
• 6 cups reduced-sodium vegetable broth (or water + ½ tsp sea salt)
• ¼ cup chopped fresh dill, divided
• 1 cup chopped ham
• Coarse ground mustard

*While it’s certainly not traditional, I’ll go ahead and tell you that this soup is still delicious is you substitute 3 cups of thawed green peas!  If you do this, you can also reduce the cooking time by half.

Instructions:

Johanna