Habitant French Canadian Pea Soup is definitely one of my favourites! When I come to Canada for summer holidays I always pick up a couple of tins on my first visit to the supermarket. It really is delicious.

I will keep my eye on this thread as I'd also love to have a copy-cat recipe.

SharonCb

Let's hope someone has one.

Have you seen this one? Sounds similar and it might be good.

Monique.....are you there? Do you have a T&T version from Quebec?

SharonCb

Here is a link that might be useful: French Canadian Pea Soup

I didn't know that was Canadian....
I had a Swedish friend who made something like that and she called it something that sounded like "etavalen". She was always looking for whole dried peas.
Linda C

I have never seen that brand of soup so I can't say if my recipe is anything like it. I'll post my recipe and you can look at the ingredients and see if it seems right. It is a very rich, butter flavored soup, the cumin gives it a different flavor than any other split pea soup I have had.

Yellow Split Pea Soup

1 lb dried yellow split peas
1 lb ham, julienned
8 cups water
1 bay leaf
2 TSPS butter
2 stalks celery, chopped
1 large onion, chopped
2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp ground cumin
1/2 tsp dried marjoram, crushed
1/2 tsp fresh ground black pepper

1. In a 6 quart dutch oven, combine the peas, ham, water, and bay leaf. Bring to boiling. Reduce heat, cover, and simmer for 1 hour stirring occasionally.

2. Meanwhile, in a large skillet, melt the butter, add the celery and onion. Saute for about 5 minutes or until the vegetables are crisp tender. stir in the salt, cumin, marjoram, and pepper. Cook and stir for a minute or two. Add the Vegetable mixture to the split pea mixture. Cover the pot and simmer for 40 minutes to 1 hour, stirring occasionally.

Makes 8 servings. 371 calories, 33 g protein, 37 g carbs, 11 g fat, 633 mg sodium.

It's my fave as well. I've never thought of making it from scratch though when I can just go buy it at the store. I usually stock up when it's 99 cents.

I just made pea soup the other day.

My mom was French-Canadian and her soup was very similar to Habitant (which we also ate regularly!)

Start with 1-2 bags of yellow peas (depending on how much soup you want. 2 bags makes alot of soup!

cover with water and let soak overnight.

Drain and return to pan and fill with fresh water to generously cover peas. then I add piece of salt pork (you can also add chopped onion...but I don't think Habitant does that)

cook on low until peas are cooked. If it gets too thick add a little more water. Add salt and pepper to taste.

It's not elaborate, but the only pea soup my mom ever made.

The first ingredient in Habitant pea soup is water followed by yellow peas and then lard. Anything else is pretty minimal, a little dehydrated onion and spice flavoring.

My mother was French-Canadian. From our perspective the savory, the bay leaf, the marjoram etc. are all fancy additions. It's just plain pea soup with a little pork of some sort for flavor. Joanne's recipe is basically it.

This is kind of interesting. A link to advertising copy for Habitant - all the ways to sell water and yellow peas. (Which is not to denigrate pea soup, a wonderful dish regardless of nationality.)

Carol

Here is a link that might be useful: Writing Product Descriptions that Make Customers Hungry

A friend of mine used to make pea soup and was known for it; she ran out of time one day and decided to heat up a couple of cans of Habitant pea soup and pass it off as her own.

Her husband and 2 BIL's raved about it and said she had surpassed herself this time. She laughed about it.

I think we quebecers were raised on the Habitant version of pea soup and it's comfort food to us.

My mom & dad were born in the U.S. but all their siblings were born in Quebec. Pea soup was a staple around our house though my mom made hers with split green peas rather than yellow peas. Here's her version:

Pea Soup

1 large ham shank
1 cup of diced ham
2 large carrots peeled
2 stalks of celery
1 medium onion
1 lb. dried split green peas
Salt & pepper to taste

Place ham bone, vegetables and peas in a large stockpot. Cover with water and bring to a boil. Skim foam. Reduce heat and cover so mixture simmers. Stir occasionally to prevent sticking. Simmer for 3-4 hours until peas are soft. Remove ham bone and puree mixture. Chill. Return puree, to pot, add ham, heat through and serve.

*The green color makes my husband and kids squemish so I substitute 15 bean assortment for the peas, add about 1/2 to 3/4 cup seeded, diced tomato or V-8 juice and skip pureeing the mixture. I serve it with a little fresh grated parmesan cheese and they love it!

I love love love this soup but had to come up with my own version when I became vegetarian. For best results you have to use whole dried yellow peas. I think the secrets are cloves and butter.
2 cups peas
8 cups water
2 bay leaves
One whole onion with 5 whole cloves stuck in it
Simmer for a long time or pressure cook until the peas are soft. Remove the onion and bay leaves. Add a chopped carrot or two and simmer until the carrot is soft. Sometimes I mash or pur�e the soup. At the end add butter, salt and pepper to taste. I use about 1/4 cup of butter. It seems alot but there is no other fat. It will need quite a bit of salt and pepper.