Saltkjöt og baunir

Pea soup with cured meat

Here's the classic Icelandic dish Saltkjöt og baunir , i.e. salted meat with peas. I struggled with the "translation" of this dish to make it reproducible outside of Iceland. There is no salt meat available in Germany and probably in other countries, either. Salt meat is fresh meat that has been marinated in brine - and it really tastes incredibly salty. My recommendation is to make do with cured pork tenderloin. However, this is not fresh, but slightly smoked - so it's not quite the same and tastes much less salty.

Alternatively, you can also pickle your own Saltkjöt (see recipe ).


Ingredients

100 g yellow half peas
1.2 liters of water
2 stalks of leeks
700 g cured pork
2 tsp thyme
4 potatoes
4 carrots
2 beets


Preparation

Soak half the yellow peas in water for at least an hour.

Wash and clean the leek and cut it into thin rings.

Drain the soaking water from the peas.

Heat 1.2 liters of water with the soaked peas and leek rings in a large pot.

Cut the meat into rough pieces and add it along with the thyme and simmer for about 1 hour.

Wash, peel and dice carrots, potatoes and beets.

Then add it to the saucepan and cook for another half hour until you have a fairly thick stew.

Traditionally in Iceland, this dish is prepared with saltkjöt - but you can only cook half of the meat, otherwise it will be much too salty!, and the other half of the meat is cooked separately in water and then added to the stew.

[Translated from here.]