Recipe: Spanish Pea Soup

It’s a must to cook pea soup in winter: there are few things that warm and tone you up like a bowl of thick, rich pea soup with aromatic smoked meats. And although there are a lot of recipes, this soup is excellent with a broth made from smoked pork ribs, but for extra “Spanishness” it can be cooked on a jamon bone, if you happen to have one.

You need: 800 g pork ribs, 2 bay leaves, 1 onion, herbs, allspice, 250 g split peas, 1 onion, 1 carrot, 1 celery stalk, 2 cloves of garlic, olive oil, 1 tsp. smoked paprika (optional, but highly recommended!), salt, black pepper.

Preparation:

Any soup starts with broth. Pour cold water over the ribs, cut into several pieces, add bay leaves, halved onions, herbs, allspice, and if you have them, then roots, and bring to a boil.

Skim off the foam, reduce the heat and simmer for a long time, about two hours: in winter there’s no rush anyway, but the broth will be rich. After this, you can take a break - cool the broth and put it in the refrigerator, at the same time it will be easier to remove the fat from the surface. Everything else can be thrown away, except for the ribs: remove the meat from the bones and chop finely, we will need it later.

As mentioned above, the soup will be truly Spanish if you cook it on the bone that remains after cutting the jamon. In this case, the meat from the ribs can be replaced with chorizo ​​sausage, cut into cubes.

Heat a little olive oil in a heavy-bottomed saucepan, add finely chopped onion, carrots, celery and garlic and fry over low heat, stirring until the vegetables soften but do not burn.

After a few minutes, add the meat, and then the smoked paprika and mix everything well. Add the peas, pour in the broth and simmer for about an hour or a little more, depending on your preference for the consistency of the pea soup. A blender will also help you play with the consistency - pour out some of the soup and puree until smooth, then return it back to the pan and stir.

Serve the soup, garnishing it the same way you would decorate any cream soup: herbs, croutons, seeds, chili, grated cheese, drops of olive oil. For example, the delicate yellow leaves from the core of stalked celery contrast pleasantly with the brutal appearance of this soup.

By the way, the next day the soup will become thicker and can be diluted with water to the desired consistency.