There is a very special tradition on Thursdays in Sweden: Eating pea soup - “ärtsoppa.” I moved here 8 months ago and have been avoiding this tradition ever since. My husband insists that I am never going to be accepted in Sweden if I can’t sit down and eat ärtsoppa like a grown-up, or even a kid… or at all. I can’t even think of it without grimacing!
Today was the day I finally gave in. And it wasn’t bad! My taste buds seem to be adjusting to this Swedish life. And besides, who doesn’t love a filling, cheap, and easy meal?!
The tradition of eating weekly ärtsoppa comes from needing to fill-up the belly for fasting on Fridays and has continued through the Swedish armed forces being served this every Thursday since WWII.
Swedish ärtsoppa is made of yellow peas and usually contains pork and mustard (which some say is the most important part). Crisp hardbread is usually eaten alongside and Swedish (crepe) pancakes, pankakor with jam as dessert (read: reward). Punsch, a traditional sweet liqueur served warm, is the side beverage of choice. The pancakes and jam are sometimes served together with the ärtsoppa, as it is more part of the meal than an actual dessert.
Many restaurants offer ärtsoppa on Thursdays, along with school meals, and work cafeterias. It is also common to eat it at home either homemade or store bought – like many foods in Sweden, it is sold in a plastic tube.
Next time we will make the homemade recipe. If your looking for a way to be more Swedish, try setting aside your Thursday to be Ärtsoppadagen!
Aug 09, 2012 @ 20:42:08
I actually like pea soup quite a bit so I bet I’d love it!
Josh and I would really love to visit you and Esby someday
Aug 09, 2012 @ 20:47:39
Oh, you would and you should!! <3 I promise to show you all the Swedish food.
Aug 09, 2012 @ 20:44:44
Funny, I lived in a Swedish family for one year and w never ate it. Sure we had the pannkakor, many times but never the soup. But I learnd to make a big pannkaka in the oven, just do the dough without the margarine or butter, put the butter in a deep Sheet pan and when it’s melted add the dough, then wait unit it looks good and eat with Applesauce! Yummie
Aug 09, 2012 @ 20:49:40
Interesting- I’ll have to try that! What part of Sweden did you live in? As hesitant as I was, I was glad my hubby persisted that I try it.
Aug 09, 2012 @ 20:57:32
Close to Uppsala but long in the forest. Now I’m back in Berlin but soon I’m going to move to Australia
Aug 09, 2012 @ 21:06:59
If you do make ugnspannkaka (oven pancake) as descibed above, I recommend trying fläskpannkaka. It’s pancake in the oven with pork in it. Eaten with lingonsylt. The sweet and the salty goes perfect together!
Ugnspannkaka is also great more as a dessert with pieces of apple and cinnamon (and sugar) in it! And so easy to make! Just mix the ingredients for pancakes and pour them onto an oven tray with high edges.
Aug 09, 2012 @ 21:10:34
And since I understand that it can happen, for me as a Swede it sounds increadibly weird that a swedish family wouldn’t eat peasoup for an intire year! I guess someone in that family must’ve really hated it!? It’s very, very common in schools, lunch restaurants, and other places though. On thursdays, that is.
But the best kind (except homemade) isn’t on a plastic tube. It’s “soldatens ärtsoppa”, the soldiers peasoup, sold in a can.
Aug 10, 2012 @ 14:56:24
My husband got very excited when I he read flaskpannkaka! I think that will be on the menu this week!
Oct 29, 2012 @ 01:29:48
Yeah my husband like’s that kind. I’m sure there’s a couple of cans in the pantry right now. With ‘extra much flesh meat’. LOL
Funny though, he ate it somewhat often when I first arrived, but he almost never eats it anymore. Or pannkaka. He often spoke about how often he ate it in the army or in school, and seemed to love it, but just once he started eating my cooking, he ate it less and less. I can’t remember the last time I saw him eat it. But I’m a really good cook. I think he gained 20 kilos in 6 months; not because the food I make is particularly fattening, but anything will make you gain weight if you eat a kilo of it at one sitting !! HAHA
Aug 09, 2012 @ 22:59:02
I don’t like pea soup but that does look tempting!
Aug 10, 2012 @ 14:49:13
It looks like creamed corn to me, which I miss lol
Aug 10, 2012 @ 00:24:16
Just like Lotta I lived in a swedish family and we never ate it in that time. Anyway, I suppose the kids got ärtsoppa at the dagis…
But of course we ate pannkaka med lingonsylt. A lot!
Aug 10, 2012 @ 14:53:41
I could eat pannkakka everyday!
Aug 10, 2012 @ 06:29:52
That’s awesome! I will have to try some sometime. I just moved up to the Minneapolis area, we’re bound to have some good Swedish food up here…
Aug 10, 2012 @ 12:03:01
Looks fantastic. We have to try it one Thursday. I had some pea soup at a Danish community in California named Solvang and it was great. The mustard is a key ingredient for sure.
Aug 10, 2012 @ 12:24:16
Midsommarflicka: Actually, it’s not that common to eat pannkakor with lingonsylt. Lingonsylt is commonly used to food that isn’t sweet, like meatballs. To pancakes most swedes eat strawberry-, raspberry- blueberry- or “drottningsylt”, “queensjam” a mix of raspberries and blueberries.
The only time I have eaten lingon with pancakes was in school, and then it wasn’t the ordinary lingonsylt but somethong they called “allsylt”, “everythingjam”, a mix of lingonsylt and other berries. And that was the only jam they served in school, the same for everything, meatballs as well as pancakes.
Aug 10, 2012 @ 14:52:41
I always eat pannkakor with strawberry jam, but have accidentally mixed up my jars and eaten it with lingonberry- I wasn’t very happy! I have tried it with hallon jam, but that isn’t sweet enough either. Absolutely love lingonberry with most meats though!
Aug 10, 2012 @ 18:48:05
Try “soldatens ärtsoppa”, its the best! I crave it all the time … Try the one with a lot of extra pork in it :p
Aug 10, 2012 @ 20:10:20
Thats funny in Norway the Thursday tradition is Komle (potato dumpling) I really have grown to like it. I have also tried Norwegian ertesuppe (pea soup) and don’t like it. I guess we need to just give it some time and these things will grow on us…
Aug 11, 2012 @ 01:27:52
Born in Sweden, lived here my entire life, and have spent all 29 years of it avoiding ärtsoppa like the devil. Kinda goes for fläskpannkaka as well
Thursdays are pizzeria-day!