Catholic Recipe: Yellow Split Pea Soup

Also Called: Postna Grochowka

Since the revision of Lenten fasting rules, Lenten fare isn't so drastic, but in the past the Polish people's main staples in Lent included herring (smoked or cooked), and zur, a mush made of fermented rye meal and water, which serves as a base for some Lenten soups.

This yellow split pea soup is a Polish Lenten favorite.

This recipe would be appropriate for the Fifth Sunday of Lent or Passion Sunday, due to the second title of Carling Sunday. From Feast Day Cookbook "according to the story, a famine in Newcastle, England, was relieved when on that day there came into the harbor a ship with a cargo of peas commonly known as carlings. Some authorities hazard the guess that the name came from a penitential Lenten practice of wearing hard peas within the shoe—certainly a most uncomfortable custom."

DIRECTIONS

Boil all ingredients except carrots slowly for about 4 hours or until peas are tender. Add carrots 2 hours before soup is done.