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Pea soup with smoked bacon

Pea Soup with Smoked Pork Fat (Salo)

Delicious, hearty, and easy to make — for the whole family! This pea soup with smoked salo (cured pork fat) comes out so fragrant it's impossible to resist. You can adjust the cooking time by choosing different types of peas or by using a slow cooker or pressure cooker.

Julia M.

Recipe author

Composition / ingredients

Servings:

Split peas

100

Salo (cured pork fat) (smoked)

200

Potatoes

Onion

Carrot

Water

Salt

Translation table of volumetric measures

Nutrients and energy value of the composition of the recipe

By weight of the composition:

Proteins 8 % 1 g

Fats 46 % 6 g

Carbohydrates 46 % 6 g

79 kcal

GI: 100 / 0 / 0

Cooking method

Step 1:

How do you make pea soup with smoked salo? Gather your ingredients. Smoked salo gives the soup its unique flavor — you could also use dry-cured bacon or smoked ribs. The whole charm of this soup is in that smoky aroma. I use split peas, which don't need soaking; go by the cooking time on the package.
Step 2:

Pour water into a pot and bring it to a boil. Add the peas and cook for 20 minutes.
Step 3:

Peel the onion and carrot, rinse them, and chop: dice the onion finely and grate the carrot.
Step 4:

Heat a skillet until hot. Cut the smoked salo into pieces — I cut the meatier part larger and the pure fat into small pieces so it renders. Put the salo in the dry skillet (no oil) and fry for 2–3 minutes; it will render enough fat for sautéing.
Step 5:

Add the chopped onion and carrot to the skillet. Stir and fry for another 2–3 minutes.
Step 6:

Peel the potatoes and cut them into pieces. Add the potatoes to the pot with the peas.
Step 7:

Then add the salo-and-vegetable sauté. Stir and season with salt to taste. Cook everything together for another 20 minutes — by then the peas will be done, the potatoes soft, and the fried smoked salo will have given all its flavor and aroma to the soup.
Step 8:

Take the finished soup off the heat, ladle into bowls, and serve hot. Enjoy!

For cooking, it's best to use neutral-tasting filtered or bottled water. Tap water can give the dish an unpleasant flavor.
A note on quantities: whether or not a recipe specifies the amount of water, go by your own preference (thick or thinner soup), the size of your pot, and the ingredients you're using. The author's idea of how much potato, grain, or other ingredients to use may differ from yours. If you're making it for the first time, don't cook a whole pot at once — make a small batch for one or two people first. Scale all the ingredients down to 1–2 servings and figure on about 1 cup of water per serving for a very thick soup, up to 1.5–2 cups for a thinner one, keeping in mind that some liquid boils off as it cooks. After tasting, you can fine-tune the liquid and proportions to your taste — and over time you'll be able to add it all by eye.