When thinking of pea soup, I can't help but also think of pancakes and Thursdays. Does this sound strange? Well, it all began in Finland, you see...
I probably ate pea soup for lunch on 98% of the Thursdays in the year I lived in Finland as a student. The university's cafeteria served it every Thursday alongside its traditional pairing of thin pancakes and jam.
Why? Originally, the soup and pancakes came to be eaten as a filling tide-me-over before fasting on Fridays throughout pre-Reformation-era Scandinavia. As an inexpensive lunch that's easily prepared in large batches, the tradition stuck and today is served in lunch rooms across the country from primary schools to universities. Home cooks also still adhere to the simple Thursday lunch.
• Read much more about Finland's (and other Nordic countries') pea soup Thursdays at this Wikipedia entry.
The practice at first seemed to me a curiosity, but I came to look forward to the weekly pea soup ritual and still yearn for it a bit today. The foods are, in fact, a delicious combination!
Do you associate any particular foods or meals with days of the week? In what traditions are those associations rooted?
Related: Kesäkeitto: An Easy Finnish Summer Soup To Try
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It is also very common in Sweden.
Funny, I was sitting here eating curried split pea soup for lunch when I opened this post. Now I wish I had some Swedish pancakes and jam to go with it.
Growing up in a traditional Swedish home and knowing a few Finns it struck me as a way more Swedish tradition than Finnish. http://www.soupsong.com/rartsopp.html Even the Wiki entry would lead me to believe it started in Sweden rather than Finland :)
It's the pancakes that are really the star...my family is Irish (I'm 4th generation Irish American, but the way my grandmother tells it, we're all straight off the boat), but one tradition we hold dear is having Finnish pancake on Christmas morning, or any other morning the family was all together. I could take or leave the pea soup.
We don't have any actual soup traditions, but we do order Chinese on Sunday nights. It was a tradition started by our old roommate, but even though my husband and I are off living in our own home, we still uphold the tradition. It's a great way to stretch out the laziness of the weekend before getting back into the swing of things for Monday morning. One last indulgence before the week starts.
Can you point me to a recipe or the type of pancakes you mentioned? I love new ideas for soup accompaniments.
I think you are right, Computra. I should have said: For me, it all began in Finland. That's where I discovered and came to love eating pea soup on an every-Thursday-basis.
Julie_dlc - search for "pannukakku" recipes.