I flew from Porto to Amsterdam to meet my friend Tom for his 25th birthday.Tom is Dutch and just moved from Nijmegen to Amsterdam to do his Phd in Theoretical Physics. A few days ago he had just come back from the United States where his girlfriend Karen lives that he is always missing like crazy.
I was really happy to meet Tom at his new apartment in Amsterdam. We had quite a few new stories to share. I remember he promised me to cook his Mum`s authentic “ERWTEN SOEP” the traditional peasoup of Holland.
We both knew it is a bit funny to spend a birthday cooking peasoup, but Tom somehow liked the idea, so we did it 🙂 On the evening before he showed me the city of Amsterdam with its romantic buildings, beautiful canals, tiny bridges, 9 million bicycles, cheese stalls, markets and of course beautiful cafes & restaurants.

After the nice stroll through the city we were really hungry and looked for a nice place to eat. Fortunately we found a great place so that at midnight we celebrated his birthday in a very nice dutch restaurant.
Tom is the first dutch person i met that doesnt like cheese at all. So the cheese fondue which was on the menue was not an option for him 🙂 We had a fantastic evening with amazing food and good conversations. You can spend hours talking to Tom about how the universe was born. He has a huge knowledge that really inspires me.Thanks for the nice talks Tom!

Here are some impressions of Amsterdam.

The next day we got up early to get all the ingredients for the soup but we couldn´t pass the “pancake house” without trying one of their yummy pancakes. I had the bacon-mushroom pnacake and Tom tried Apple bacon,custard sugar and marple syrup. I also couldn´t believe what they add on there, but it was extremely yummy, really. On the way we also crossed the busy daily market which it´s huge variety of cheeses. I joined the cheese tasting while Tom was observing it from the distance 🙂  We grabbed another famous streetsnack called “Frikandel” and then took off to get back to the kitchen to cook the peasoup.

The recipe is very simple but it takes about 90 minutes to cook this soup plus 20 minutes preparation time. I grapped my camera and notebook and watched Tom cooking.

And here is the recipe, straight from a dutch home 🙂 This peasoup is a great Wintermeal that fills you up and makes you feel warm immediately.

TOM´S PEASOUP RECIPE

 

For 6 soupbowls of “Erwten Soep” you will need the following ingredients:

400g dried green splitpeas
1onion (chopped)
1 carrot (quite big chunks)
1 leek
1/4 of a root celeriac
250g Bacon, chopped (we used Katen Spek)
250-500g porc shoulder ( depending how much meat you want in yaour soup)
1 Rookworst (smoked sausage) ,cut in slices
fresh Parsley for garnish
1 bayleaf
2 liters of vegstock
Salt &Pepper

Get started:

Give the Chickpeas to a big pot, together with the Porcshoulder, the Bacon and one Bayleaf.
Add 2 liters of vegstock and ring to the boil. When its boiling reduce heat and cook on medium heat for 60 minutes. Make sure you constantly get rid of the foam on the surface of the Soup.
After 60 minutes remove the porcshoulder and cut it in pieces.
Then add it back to the soup along with all the vegtable and the “Rookworst” slices.
Give everything a good stir and boil the Soup for another 30-40 minutes. Season with salt and pepper. Be careful with the Salt cause the Vegstock and bacon are salty already.

Tom kept boiling the soup for a bit longer cause he wanted it quite thick. That´s how he always had it as a child when his Mum cooked it for him. And it was perfect!! If you want it less thick take the soup off earlier.

The dish gets served traditionally with a slice of “rye bread” and a slice of ham called “Katenspek”.

This hearty Wintersoup really is perfect for cold days.

Thank you for the nice time in Amsterdam and for sharing your recipe Tom!
It´s so deliciouse!

I hope to see you again soon.

Your foodvagabond, Michael 🙂

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