Something Finnish

Something's typical Finnish in this post. Peasoup, althought they say it's Swedish, we eat it alot in Finland. And, it's one of my favourite foods. Very simple to make and. It's kind of the same thing as Dutch erwtensoep but in Finland we don't add potatoes or leeks or sausage in it.

Here's a recipe for hernekeitto, as we call it in Finland:


2,5 liters water
500g dried peas
500g of smoked pork bones
(2 onions)
3 carrots
½ tbl pepper
1 tbl marjoram
1 tbl salt (unless you use salty meat)

Soak peas in water over night. Next day, rinse peas in fresh water and strain them. Add the water in pan with the meat and let it simmer slowly for about 3 hours.
Remove the meat from the bones and chop into smaller pieces. Grate the carrot. Add meat, carrots, pepper, marjoram and salt in the pan and let it simmer for another 30 minutes.
Serve hot and with a small amount of mustard (if you do this in Finland, don't use Turun Sinappi, it's Swedish so it's not good for this ;))

I used minced meat when I took the picture, it works just as swell as loin of pork. It won't take as long to cook but you get the more authentic flavour if you use pork.