Polévka (the opening soup, foundation of the daily Moravian meal)
Hrachová polévka — Caraway Yellow Pea Soup
EverydayReconstruction🧂 🍄facile1 h (plus soaking)
A creamy soup of yellow split peas, thickened with a little lard, flavored with garlic, marjoram, and especially caraway, and topped with small toasted bread croutons. Comforting, golden, deeply nourishing: the dish for grey days in Moravia.
Polévka (the opening soup, foundation of the daily Moravian meal)
A creamy soup of yellow split peas, thickened with a little lard, flavored with garlic, marjoram, and especially caraway, and topped with small toasted bread croutons. Comforting, golden, deeply nourishing: the dish for grey days in Moravia.
Allow an old monk to lead you to his table. See this pea: I observed it for years in the garden, counting its flowers and pods as one reads a patient book — but before instructing my mind, it nourished my body. Dried and soaked the night before, it is left to soften gently on the fire until it dissolves into a golden cream; a hint of lard, garlic, and that seed of caraway without which no Moravian could digest winter. Eat it slowly: nature reveals its secrets, whether to the scholar or the gourmand, only to those who know how to wait.
Ingredients
- •Yellow split peas (from the garden, dried) — a good bowlful (soup base)
- •Lard or smoked bacon — a piece (fat and smoky flavor)
- •Onion — 1 (aromatic)
- •Garlic — a few cloves (aromatic)
- •Caraway seeds — a generous pinch (signature spice)
- •Dried marjoram — a pinch (herb)
- •Stale bread — a few slices (croutons)
How it was made : In the monastic communities and Moravian farms of the 19th century, dried legumes were the winter protein reserve, cooked for hours on the wood stove. Meat was used only sparingly, in the form of smoked bacon. The soup was thickened with bread rather than cream, and caraway was as systematic as salt.