North America → Canada → Québec
🥗 STARTER
Soupe aux Pois (Québécois Yellow Pea Soup)
Whole yellow peas soaked overnight and simmered for hours with salt pork, onion, carrot, celery, bay and summer savory into a thick golden soup, the first bowl of a sugar shack meal.
Québécois · easy · serves 8
prep 20 min · cook 180 min · plus 8 h hands-off time
~252 cal · 20g protein · 33g carbs · 4g fat · 13g fiber · 6g sugars · 2g sat fat (estimated, per serving)
↓ Jump to Recipe
AI-generated illustration
Soupe aux pois is the soup of old Quebec, made from whole yellow peas, salt pork and a few vegetables, simmered for a long time with a bay leaf. It is the dish that opens the meal at the cabane à sucre, the sugar shack, where families go each spring during the maple run for a long meal of baked beans, crêpes and fried salt pork with maple syrup.
It is food for keeping. When settlers went up to the sugar bush for the season they took with them only what would not spoil, dried peas, beans, salt pork and flour, and out of those came pea soup, baked beans, crêpes and fried salt pork. The dried peas that kept a household through the winter are still the base of the soup.
Whole yellow peas, not split ones, are the traditional choice, and they need an overnight soak. The herb is sarriette, summer savory, which is to Quebec pea soup what thyme is to many others. The soup should end up thick, and like most bean and pea soups it is better the next day.
Saved recipes and passport stamps are kept on this device. Sign in to keep them across your devices and leave reviews.
Make it yours
✓ Naturally gluten-, dairy-, nut- and egg-free. No swaps needed.
Toggle a diet and the ingredients rewrite themselves with regional substitutes.
🥕 Vegetarian
🌱 Vegan
🌾 Gluten-Free
🥛 Dairy-Free
🥜 Nut-Free
🥚 Egg-Free
🐖 Pork-Free
Dietary labels are a cooking guide, not allergen-safety advice. We track dairy, egg, gluten, tree nuts and peanuts (we count coconut as a tree nut, following FDA labeling), fish, and shellfish; we do not screen for sesame, soy, mustard, celery, or sulphites. If you have a food allergy, read the label on every product you use, and note that a kitchen can cross-contaminate in ways a recipe cannot control.
Ingredients
US
Metric
Serves 8
- 2 cups (400 g) whole dried yellow peas, or split yellow peas, which need no soaking
- 225 g (1/2 lb) salt pork (lard salé) or salted pork belly, in one piece, or a meaty ham bone
- 1 large onion, finely chopped
- 2 carrots, finely diced
- 2 celery stalks, finely diced
- 2.5 L (10 cups) water
- 2 bay leaves
- 2 tsp dried summer savory (sarriette), or thyme
- to taste salt, add at the end; the pork is salty
- 1/2 tsp black pepper
Instructions
- 1Rinse and pick over the peas, then cover them with plenty of cold water and leave to soak for at least 8 hours or overnight. Drain and rinse.
- 2If the salt pork is very salty, blanch it in boiling water for 5 minutes and drain. Put it in a large pot with the drained peas, onion, carrots, celery, water and bay leaves.
- 3Bring to a boil, skim off any foam, then lower the heat and simmer, part-covered, for 2 1/2 to 3 hours, stirring every 20 minutes or so, until the peas are very soft and falling apart and the soup is thick.✎ Chef’s notePeas catch on the bottom as they thicken. Stir more often towards the end and add a splash of water if it gets too stiff.
- 4Lift out the pork, cut it into small cubes and return it to the pot. Stir in the savory and pepper, simmer for 5 minutes more, then taste and add salt.
- 5Remove the bay leaves and serve hot, with bread, as the first course.
Québécois home and sugar shack tradition.
Ratings & reviews
Cooked it? Rate this dish:
No account needed. Sign in to leave a full review with a comment.
Cooked it?
Kept on this device, no account needed. Sign in to leave a review and keep your passport across your devices.
No reviews yet, be the first to cook it.
🌏 While it simmers, know your destination
📍
Québec. The sugar shack is a season rather than a restaurant. When nights freeze and days thaw the sap runs, the cabanes a sucre open, and the meal is fixed: pea soup, ham, omelette, baked beans, pork rinds and pancakes, all of it doused in syrup, finished with tire sur la neige, hot syrup poured on snow and wound onto a stick.
🗺️
Canada. Poutine's origin is contested between rural Quebec towns rather than settled, with Warwick and Drummondville both claiming it in the late 1950s and the province-wide story never resolved. What is not in question is the construction: fresh cheese curds that squeak, hot gravy poured over to soften but not melt them, and chips underneath.
🌍
North America. North America's table began with Indigenous foodways, the "three sisters" of corn, beans, and squash, plus chiles, tomatoes, and cacao, then layered on colonial, African, and immigrant influences. From Mexico's UNESCO-recognized cuisine to the Cajun and Creole pots of Louisiana and the fiery jerk of the Caribbean, the region turns ancient staples into something new. Barbecue, tacos, gumbo, and mole all carry stories of migration and adaptation.
The story behind this dish is up top, worth a read while the pot works.
More from Canada
PoutineHot fries, squeaky cheese curds, and glossy pepper gravy, rural Québec’s gift to late nights everywhere.
Nanaimo BarsA no-bake three-layer bar: coconut-crumb base, custard-cream middle, chocolate top, named for a BC harbor town.
Cretons sur Pain GrilléA Québécois spiced pork-and-onion spread, cold from the fridge, smeared thick on hot buttered toast with a smear of mustard.
Browse all Canada recipes →
Good to know
You’ll need: Pot or saucepan.
Storing it: Soup keeps 3 to 4 days refrigerated and freezes well. Reheat gently and loosen with a little water or stock if needed.
Make it a Canada meal
CaribouDrink
Nanaimo BarsDessert
Similar dishes from around the world
Skābeņu Zupa (Latvian Sorrel Soup)Latvia
Caldo VerdePortugal
Ciorbă de PerișoareRomania
Erwtensoep (Snert)Netherlands
Sapporo Miso RamenJapan
XiaolongbaoChina
Cuisine
Diet
Frequently asked questions
What is Soupe aux Pois (Québécois Yellow Pea Soup)?
Whole yellow peas soaked overnight and simmered for hours with salt pork, onion, carrot, celery, bay and summer savory into a thick golden soup, the first bowl of a sugar shack meal.
Where does Soupe aux Pois (Québécois Yellow Pea Soup) come from?
Soupe aux Pois (Québécois Yellow Pea Soup) is a Québécois dish from Québec, Canada.
Can Soupe aux Pois (Québécois Yellow Pea Soup) be made vegan, gluten-free, or dairy-free?
This Soupe aux Pois (Québécois Yellow Pea Soup) recipe includes substitution suggestions for vegetarian, vegan, gluten-free, dairy-free, nut-free, egg-free, and pork-free versions. Treat the substitutions as a starting guide rather than a guarantee, and see the allergen note below.
Is Soupe aux Pois (Québécois Yellow Pea Soup) safe for people with food allergies?
Our dietary labels and substitutions are a cooking guide, not medical or allergen-safety advice. We track dairy, egg, gluten, tree nuts and peanuts (we still count coconut as a tree nut to be cautious, although the FDA stopped listing it as one in 2025), fish, and shellfish, but we do not screen for sesame, soy, mustard, celery, or sulphites. If you have a food allergy, always read the label on every product you use, and remember a home or commercial kitchen can cross-contaminate ingredients in ways a recipe cannot control.
How long does Soupe aux Pois (Québécois Yellow Pea Soup) take to make?
About 11 h 20 min in all: 20 minutes prep and 180 minutes cooking, plus 8 h of hands-off waiting the method needs, serving 8.
Get the Sunday Spin
One dish from somewhere in the world, in your inbox every Sunday. No spam, just dinner inspiration you can cook that day.