Snert (Dutch Split Pea Soup)

Name: Snert (Dutch Split Pea Soup)
Prep time: 20 min
Cook time: 150 min
Total time: 170 min
Yield: 6 servings
Cuisine: Dutch
Ingredients: 500 g green split peas; 2 litres water; 1 smoked pork hock; 300 g pork ribs or belly; 1 celeriac; 2 leeks; 2 carrots; 3 waxy potatoes; 1 onion; 1 rookworst; to taste salt and pepper; to serve dark rye bread with katenspek

Erwtensoep

The Dutch winter soup thick enough to stand a spoon in — green split peas, smoked pork, celeriac and leek, finished with sliced rookworst on dark rye.

IVSoups

Prep: 20 min
Cook: 150 min
Serves: 6
Level: Beginner

There is a Dutch superstition that snert must be thick enough for a spoon to stand upright in the pot, and that anything looser is merely soup. It is only half a joke. Erwtensoep is the deep-winter anchor of the Low Countries, the thing eaten after skating on frozen canals, and its whole character is density — a green-grey purée so heavy it verges on a stew.

A soup that keeps time

The word snert has come to mean, in Dutch, something worthless or paltry — "snertweer" is miserable weather — but the soup is anything but. It is thrift turned into pleasure: cheap split peas simmered for hours with the smoked pork that a frugal kitchen always had hanging. Like many great peasant dishes it improves with waiting. Made on Saturday, it is better on Sunday, when the starch has set and the flavours have married.

The one rule

Do not rush the peas. Everything else — the celeriac that gives snert its faint sweetness, the leek, the smoked hock — is negotiable. The texture is not. Split peas collapse only with patient, uncovered simmering, and it is that collapse, not any thickener, that gives the soup its body. Keep a wooden spoon moving across the bottom of the pot so nothing catches, and let time do the work.

Snert is the taste of a Dutch winter: smoke, split peas, and the patience of a long simmer.

Serve it the traditional way, with slices of dense roggebrood spread with katenspek, the smoked, cured bacon that is snert's oldest companion. A little mustard on the rye is not wrong.

From the kitchen

“Real snert holds a standing spoon. If yours doesn't, it isn't done — keep simmering and let the peas fall completely apart.”

Ingredients

Serves 6

The soup

500 ggreen split peas — rinsed, not soaked
2 litreswater — plus more as needed
1smoked pork hock — or a ham bone
300 gpork ribs or belly — in one piece
1celeriac — small, diced
2leeks — sliced
2carrots — diced
3waxy potatoes — diced
1onion — chopped

To finish

1rookworst — smoked sausage, sliced
to tastesalt and pepper
to servedark rye bread with katenspek

Method

1
Start the peas
Rinse the split peas until the water runs clear. Put them in a heavy pot with the 2 litres of water, the pork hock and the ribs. Bring slowly to a boil, skimming off the grey foam that rises, then lower to a bare simmer.
2
The long simmer
Cook uncovered, stirring now and then to stop the peas catching, for about an hour, until the peas have collapsed into a thick purée. Top up with a little hot water only if it threatens to scorch — snert should be dense.
3
Add the vegetables
Lift out the meat and set aside. Add the celeriac, leeks, carrots, potatoes and onion. Simmer another 40 minutes, until everything is soft and the soup is smooth and heavy.
4
Return the meat
Pull the pork from the bones, shred it, and return it to the pot. Add the sliced rookworst and warm through for 10 minutes. Season well with salt and plenty of black pepper.
5
Rest and serve
Snert is best made a day ahead and reheated — it thickens further as it sits. Serve piping hot with dark rye bread and a slab of katenspek.

In the kitchen

The tools that make this recipe easier.

EssentialPotato ricer ↗
The route to lump-free stamppot and mash.
EssentialHeavy Dutch oven ↗
Enamelled cast iron for hachee, zuurvlees, and every slow braise.