Great-Grandma's Traditional Slow Cooker French Canadian Pea Soup Recipe
This is the best French Canadian pea soup recipe you will ever try. Even better? Okay, well, just as good is the fact that it is extremely easy to make.
How I Got My Great-Grandmother's French Canadian Pea Soup Recipe
I never met my great-grandmother. In fact, I never met most of my father's side of the family. We didn't live close, and it just didn't happen. Families, right? That said, as things played out, I ended up with a recipe box full of yellowed, often-stained recipe cards with handwritten recipes. This beautiful gift has become a key tool along my WellBeing journey.
The writing is hard to read and sometimes the measurements are a little odd - or completely missing - but I'm determined to try as many of them as I can and to share the ones I've enjoyed, even if I've tweaked them a little bit to make them more modern. For instance, while a traditional French Canadian pea soup recipe is very appealing to me, most of the recipes involving gelatin will likely stay in the box.
How I Changed This Traditional French Canadian Pea Soup Recipe to Make it Easier
I didn't change much about this recipe. But there were three main things:
- I make it in a slow cooker (or Instant Pot on the slow cook function). My great-grandmother made it on a stove-top in a giant pot.
- I use a smoked pork hock from a local pasture-raised pork farm. My great-grandmother used a regular pork hock from her butcher.
- I add pea shoots at the end so I automatically get some greens and a texture boost with this meal.
Here's How I Make It - Get Ready to Drool
Here is the WellBeing Clare version of my great-grandmother's traditional French Canadian pea soup recipe.
Ingredients
- 16 ounces dried split yellow peas (rinsed)
- 1 large pork hock (I use pasture-raised, smoked, but plain is fine)
- 3 medium carrots (peeled, sliced into half-circles)
- 2 celery ribs (sliced)
- 1 small onion (chopped)
- 2 cloves of garlic, minced (about 2 teaspoons)
- 1 large bay leaf
- 6 cups low-sodium chicken, pork or vegetable broth (ideally homemade)
- ground black pepper, to taste
- pea shoots or other mild sprouted greens as garnish
Instructions
Add all ingredients (except pea shoots) to your slow cooker in the order provided above. Don't stir them together.
Lock the lid in place and cook for 5 hours on the High setting or 10 hours on the Low setting. I usually use the High setting.
When it's done, remove the pork hock and use forks to pull off the fat layer (discard) and pull the pork from the bones (discard the bones).
Return the pulled pork to the soup and gently but thoroughly stir the ingredients together.
Serve, topped with the sprouted greens.
