Erwtensoep (Snert)

The Dutch national winter soup of yellow split peas cooked to a purée so thick a spoon stands upright, with smoked sausage, pork, and root vegetables

Origin: Netherlands

From the journey of Pea.

Erwtensoep, known affectionately across the Netherlands as snert, is one of the most emphatically national of all Dutch dishes, the soup of the long Dutch winter and of the skating season. The test of a proper snert is famous: the soup must be so thick that a spoon stood upright in the pot will not fall over. It is made from green or yellow split peas cooked down for hours into a dense purée, enriched with pork (a smoked sausage, rookworst, is essential, and often a pig's trotter, ham hock, or bacon for body), and built on a base of celeriac, leek, onion, and carrot. The Dutch have a long and serious relationship with the pea. The kitchen gardeners of the Low Countries were amongst the great early developers of the edible-podded 'sugar pea', and the brown field pea, the capucijner, remains a Dutch winter staple. But it is the humble split pea, dried and stored against the cold, that became the national soup. Snert is traditionally cooked a day ahead, since it is held to taste better on the second day and thickens further overnight, and it is served with slices of dense, dark Frisian rye bread (roggebrood) spread with butter and topped with a little crisp bacon or katenspek. It is winter food in the deepest sense, the soup ladled from great cauldrons set up beside the frozen canals when the whole country takes to its skates, fortifying and restorative and unmistakably of its place. Cooking snert is now listed amongst the intangible cultural heritage of the Netherlands.

Ingredients

Soup

500 g green or yellow split peas, rinsed
2 l water
1 piece pork hock or pig's trotter (or 300 g smoked bacon in a piece)
1 piece rookworst (Dutch smoked sausage), about 250 g

Vegetables

0.5 piece celeriac, peeled and diced
2 piece leeks, sliced
1 piece onion, chopped
2 piece carrots, diced
2 piece floury potatoes, peeled and diced

Finishing

0.5 bunch celery leaf or flat-leaf parsley, chopped

Seasoning

1.5 tsp salt, or to taste (less if using salty pork)
0.5 tsp freshly ground black pepper

Method

Put the rinsed split peas, the water, and the pork hock (or bacon) in a large pot. Bring to a boil, skim off the foam thoroughly, then lower to a gentle simmer.
Simmer partly covered for about 1 hour, stirring now and then to stop the peas catching, until the peas are beginning to break down.
Add the celeriac, leeks, onion, carrots, and potatoes. Continue to simmer for another 45 minutes to 1 hour, until the peas have collapsed completely into a thick purée and the vegetables are soft. The soup should be very thick.
Lift out the pork hock, strip the meat from the bone, dice it, and return it to the pot, discarding bone, skin, and fat. Add the whole rookworst and simmer gently for 15 minutes to heat through, then lift it out, slice it, and return the slices.
Season with salt and plenty of black pepper, and stir in the chopped celery leaf or parsley. If possible, cool and refrigerate overnight, then reheat the next day with a little water to loosen.
Serve piping hot in deep bowls, with slices of dark Frisian rye bread spread with butter and topped with crisp bacon or katenspek alongside.

Notes

Snert must be thick; a thin pea soup is not snert. It freezes well. For a lighter or vegetarian version, omit the pork and sausage and build the body with extra root vegetables and a smoked paprika or a little liquid smoke, though Dutch tradition is firmly carnivorous. Green and yellow split peas both work; green gives the more familiar dark-khaki colour.

The Gastrographer

Name: Erwtensoep (Snert)
Prep time: 20 min
Cook time: 2 h 15 min
Total time: 2 h 35 min
Yield: 6
Cuisine: Netherlands
Ingredients: 500 g green or yellow split peas, rinsed; 2 l water; 1 piece pork hock or pig's trotter (or 300 g smoked bacon in a piece); 1 piece rookworst (Dutch smoked sausage), about 250 g; 0.5 piece celeriac, peeled and diced; 2 piece leeks, sliced; 1 piece onion, chopped; 2 piece carrots, diced; 2 piece floury potatoes, peeled and diced; 0.5 bunch celery leaf or flat-leaf parsley, chopped; 1.5 tsp salt, or to taste (less if using salty pork); 0.5 tsp freshly ground black pepper

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Journey Point Map Key

Ingredient originTrade or transit route

Became a culinary stapleColonial / trade control