German Split Pea Soup – Authentic Recipe

The German Split Pea Soup, or as we call it in German “Erbseneintopf or Erbsensuppe”, is another great soup you will like. The split pea soup is a typical German soup that is very popular during the fall and winter months.
Split pea soup can be made with or without meat – it is up to you. You can add bacon, Kassler, or sausages. It also tastes awesome with chicken broth instead of water, or with some spices like hot red pepper (chili), or green and red pepper.

The German Split Pea soup used to be the food for the men at sea, and they almost had it daily, back in the times when the ships were not equipped with cooling systems. Dried peas were easy to store and the soup was easy to make like with our authentic recipe from Germany. Happy Cooking!

Ingredients German Split Pea Soup

500 g dried peas, green or yellow or mixed
150 g bacon cubes (Speck)
or use 500 g Kassler (smoked pork chop) – optional, can be used instead of sausages
Sausages (Knackwurst, Frankfurter or Wiener) 1-2 sausages per person – Find Knackwurst Here –
1 medium sized onion
2 medium sized carrots
1 leek and 2 stalks celery or 1/2 celery root
2 bay leaves
3 medium sized potatoes,
Salt, pepper to taste
1 tbsp parsley, chopped
1 -2 tsp butter or sunflower oil
1 splash vinegar, optional
Spring water or vegetable broth as needed

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Cooking Instructions

– Wash peas in a sieve. You can soak the peas the night before in water. It will shorten the cooking time a lot. After soaking drain them, and add to the soup as described in instruction.
– Cut bacon into small cubes.
– Peel onion and chop it into small cubes.
– Cut leek and carrots in small pieces.
– Peel potatoes and cut them in small cubes.
– In a large pot heat butter or oil, fry onion and bacon until transparent.

– Add peas, carrots and leek fill up with water or broth until peas are covered.
– Add bay leaves, salt and pepper (don’t forget the meat will also add salt to the water).
– Bring it to a boil (if the water gets foamy remove the foam with a spoon).
– If you use Kassler: After 30 minutes add the Kassler and the potatoes.
– Let it cook for about 1 more hour then take out the Kassler and remove it from the bones, cut the meat into small pieces.
– Add the sausages (you can cut the sausages into smaller pieces if you like).
– Let it cook for another 15-20 minutes, then add the meat again before you serve it.

Serve with fresh bread.

Tips
If you soak the peas over night in water you would use the soaking water as cooking liquid. The cooking time might vary then too; in general pea soup needs a long cooking time until the peas are really soft and mushy.
You can use a stick mixer and puree the soup.