History Cookbook: Pea Pottage

Healthiness : (6 votes)

Difficulty:  
Comments: This is a straightforward dish. Make sure you let the peas cool a little before you mash or liquidize them, as the hot juice could splash you.
Preparation Time: 5-10 minutes
Cooking Time: 15-20 mins
Number of servings: 6
Serving suggestions: Serve thin as a soup or thick as vegetable with a main meal.
This is a vegan recipe

This is a version of pottage using mainly peas.

Dishes using dried peas and beans were often served in Lent (the 40 days leading up to Easter). By then, winter food stocks were very low and plain foods were eaked out until the early spring produce (nettle tips, ground elder etc) began to grow. However, it can be made equally well with fresh peas as a summer dish.

This is the original recipe:

Perry of person. Take person and seeth hem fast, and coure hem til thei berst; theene take hem up and cole hem thurgh a cloth. Take oynouns and mynce hem,and seeth hem in the same sewe, and oile therewith; cast therto sugar, salt, and safroun, and serue hem forth. 

person= peas

• 1.1 litres (2 pints) (5 cups) water
• 700g (1½ lb) garden peas, shelled
• 350g (12oz) onions, peeled and finely chopped
• 1-2 tablespoons vegetable oil
• 1-1½ tsp light brown sugar
• 1 tsp sea salt, to taste
• optional: ¼ tsp crushed saffron strands, soaked in 3-4 tbsp hot water

• Measuring jug
• Tablespoons
• Teaspoon
• Spoon
• Knife
• Masher or food processor

Always wash your hands before preparing food.

1. Bring the water to the boil  
2. Add the fresh peas and onions (and saffron, if used). If you are using dried peas soak them overnight before starting
3. Cook until the peas are very soft 
4. Liquidize or mash 
5. Simmer until the liquid is of the thickness desired 
6. Season with a little salt and serve hot
7. In the past it was considered that the thicker the soup the better the quality. Later versions of this dish serve the peas reduced to the thickness of mashed potato

There are 2 comments for this recipe.
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Name: Sam	7th October 2009
Looks weird!

Name: Timmy	7th October 2009
It's really greeen!

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