Pea Purée

Pea purée is a very old Polish recipe and in its simplest version yellow split peas with cloves or allspice & bay leaves are cooked till soft and  mashed. Nowadays a blender is more often used – I use my stick blender.

Whilst doing research for this recipe I found that it is very much like the old English recipe for Pease Pudding – Remember the old Nursery rhyme – Pease Pudding Hot, Pease Pudding Cold! –  this would have had nutmeg, cinnamon or saffron added.

Version 1

Ingredients

400g yellow split peas

1 large onion – peeled and cut in half

2 – 3 allspice grains or 2 cloves

4 -6 peppercorns

1 -2 bay leaves

Salt & pepper to taste

 

 

Method

Place the split peas, onion, allspice or cloves and the bay leaves into a large saucepan.

Cover with boiling water so that there is about 2cm of water above the ingredients.

Simmer  gently until the peas are soft and mushy – stirring occasionally to prevent sticking and burning – add a little hot water if it looks like it is cooking away too quickly.

Remove the spices and the bay leaf.

Purée the pea mixture – I use a stick blender.

Add salt and pepper to taste.

Serve hot – it goes very well with hot smoked sausages, bacon or ham hock.

Add skwarki (crispy bacon bits) or charred onion as a topping.

Version 2

Ingredients

400g yellow split peas

1 large onion

2 medium carrots

2 – 3 allspice grains or 2 cloves

4 -6 peppercorns

1 -2 bay leaves

Salt & pepper to taste

 

Method

Peel the carrots.

Place the split peas, carrots, onion, allspice or cloves and the bay leaves into a large saucepan.

Cover with boiling water so that there is about 2cm of water above the ingredients.

Simmer  gently until the peas and are soft and mushy and the carrots are soft, stirring occasionally to prevent sticking and burning. – add a little hot water if it looks like it is cooking away too quickly.

Remove the spices and the bay leaf.

Puree the pea mixture – I use a stick blender.

Add salt and pepper to taste.

Serve hot – it goes very well with hot smoked sausages, bacon or ham hock.

Add skwarki (crispy bacon bits) or charred onion as a topping.

 

 

This tastes sweeter than version 1 because of the carrots.

Note

I used a slow cooker the second time I made this – it made it easieras it prevented burning or all the liquid cooking off to soon.