Snert does not sound very appetizing.

But, oh, it is probably one of the best comfort foods for the winter that exists.

Snert, erwtensoep, split-pea soup, ertjie sop, ärtsoppa, whatever you want to call it, is basically a pea soup with some smoked meat component added afterward. If you skip this meat part and the addition of beef stock, you can make this totally vegan! Add some smokey chickpeas or nuts, then you have a totally vegan comfort food I would eat on a daily basis in this cold weather.

It is a very simple soup to make, but to ensure that you get the maximum level of flavor, there are some steps you need to take that can be laborious. But you can skip them! Just throw all of the ingredients into the pressure cooker, cook the snert for 20 minutes or so and your soup will be perfect!

But you can also take the longer route by slow cooking the pea soup the whole afternoon. This recipe will cover this last-mentioned slow method. Please read on for my version of this wonderful soup which I call the Everything-But-Snert-Soup. There are two reasons for calling this soup everything but snert: (i) snert basically meaning rubbish or something worthless, this soup is everything but rubbish, and (ii) it is also everything but traditional snert or erwtensoep. This is merely my own version of this comfort food. Please follow along below!

Ingredients

For this recipe you will need:

• Carrots,
• potato,
• onion,
• garlic,
• celery (stalks and leaves),
• split peas,
• stock (meat or vegetable), and
• smoked sausage/meat (or any substitute).

You will also need some spices. This will be up to the specific flavor profile you want to create. I used:

• Smoked paprika,
• garlic powder, and
• celery seeds.

Buy bulk and save! The split peas store very well for a long time.

Method

I begin by frying some bacon to use the bacon fat to fry my onions in. This also creates some "fond" on the bottom of the pan.

After you fried your onions a bit, add some potatoes, carrots, celery, and the split peas. Basically, add everything except the meat (or meat-substitute).

Add your stock (meat or vegetable) at this stage. This is the step that takes the longest. So if you have ready-made stock, add this, otherwise, you need to make some. It is as easy as adding bones to a pressure cooker and cooking them for two hours. You will be left with this rich flavorful liquid. I will make a recipe post about this process as well!

The thing about this soup is that the better your stock is, the better your product will taste. All of the collagen and meaty flavors make this soup next-level comfort and give it a good mouthfeel. I am not sure how to mimic this with vegan ingredients yet.

Boil your soup with the spices for about 3 hours on a low flame or heat source. The slower the better. (This is after the two hours of stock! So in effect 5 hours.)

The potato will start to soften and the peas will begin to break down. Your soup will also begin to thicken. Do not let it burn on the bottom. Add water if needed.

After two hours the soup is almost ready! Only one or so hours to go. You can prepare your meat for so long.

I added some bacon, smoked sausage, and leftover braai-ed (BBQ) meat.

Add everything together and heat up the meat (if it was cold) and boil for a couple of minutes.

At this stage, you do not want to eat it immediately. Let it stand at room temp for an hour or so to cool down but to thicken as well! Actually, this soup will only be called snert the next day! (See at the end of this post how this soup looks like the next day.) The test if your soup is ready is if the spoon stands upright on its own in the soup.

This soup is best the next day, but it freezes so well. This pot is about 15 helpings of soup. That is a lot, and it is only one day's work so you score on time invested and how much you get out of it.

Serve this comforting soup with some bread on the side and with a glass of wine. You will for that couple of minutes forget about the cold winter!

The Next Day

As mentioned, you actually need to let this soup rest the whole day after cooking. See the image below how thick (or, thicccc) this soup gets:

If you can turn the spoon around without the soup falling, I think you did a good job! Do not add more water at first. When you reheat the soup it will become more liquid. But the end goal is to have something very thick and paste-like. If you do not fancy that, it is understandable. But this soup is supposed to be thick and paste-like in my opinion! Comfort food.

Postscriptum

I hope you make this soup with a very strange name. It is peak comfort food in my opinion. If you are a meat-eater, the smoked sausage and the meat stock just coat your mouth and your soul. Comfort food for the winter. BUT you can totally make this 100% vegan as well. Leave out all the meaty components and add maybe a little bit more smoked paprika and this will still be the top of comfort soups.

This recipe is by no means authentic, hence the name everything-but-snert-soup. All of the photographs are my own, taken with my iPhone.

I hope you try this recipe and please let me know how it went! If you have memories of pea soup, please let me know in the comments, I would love to read about your experience with it. Stay safe and happy cooking.