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Three bowls of green pea soup with herb garnish, beside pea pods.

Soups & potages

Potage Saint-Germain

By Jill Colonna

Bacon, leek and carrot give this creamy split-pea soup a rounded, savoury sweetness. The peas soften with a bouquet garni, then blend into a thick potage with a little butter for richness and fresh herbs at the finish. A spoonful of unblended peas gives each bowl some texture. Jill Colonna’s pantry version makes a substantial lunch, with crusty bread for dipping or cheese scones for the Scottish touch she likes alongside.

Prep
Not stated
Cook
Not stated
Total
Not stated
Serves6
Jump to recipe ↓Mad About Macarons ↗

Ingredients

Ingredients

Method

  1. Soak split peas in plenty of water for at least 4 hours. Drain and discard soaking water.
  2. In a deep pot, cook bacon over medium heat without added fat for about 5 minutes.
  3. Add leek and carrot and cook for about 5 minutes, coating in the bacon fat. Stir in bouquet garni and soaked peas for another minute.
  4. Add 750 ml fresh water and salt, bring almost to the boil, cover and lower heat. Simmer for 30 minutes for the split-pea variation.
  5. Discard bouquet garni and reserve a ladleful of peas. Blend the soup smooth, stir in butter and return the reserved peas. Taste for seasoning and finish with herbs.

Equipment

Large bowl; Deep pot with lid; Hand blender or blender; Ladle; Strainer

Notes

  • Selected split-pea batch: soak 200 g peas for at least four hours, discard the soaking water and cook with fresh water. Use the Method’s 30-minute simmer, not the fresh-pea headline schedule.
  • Unsoaked alternative: skim after the first ten minutes of cooking. The source supplies no revised total duration for this option; the main Method retains the soak.
  • Greener colour: add a few lettuce leaves or more green leek tops, as suggested for the split-pea version.
  • Vegetarian alternative: leave out the bacon, soften the vegetables in 15 g butter and add a little smoked paprika.
  • Leftover ham alternative: pull the meat from a cooked hock or shank and add it at the end, rather than frying it with the raw bacon stage.
  • Garnish and serve: keep back a ladleful of peas before blending, return them with the butter and add chervil, parsley or dill. Bread, croûtons or cheese scones suit the soup; Colonna also suggests chorizo chips.
  • Water: the retained quantity is 750 ml. The accompanying 12 fl oz in the source is inconsistent with that metric amount.
  • Nutrition: the publisher’s fresh-pea figures do not describe this 200 g split-pea batch and remain excluded.

Photos

3 photos
ingredients laid out for soup: onion, dirty carrot, leek, bacon and either split peas or fresh/frozen peasIngredientsSoup ingredients with the published pea optionspot of split peas with carrots and leeksSteps 1–3Split peas with carrot and leeklarge bowl of split pea soup served with cheese sconesServingSplit-pea soup with cheese scones

Potage Saint-Germain

Recipe photos

About this dish

Saint-Germain is one of the named pea preparations of classical French cooking. Escoffier calls the soup a fresh-pea purée in Ma cuisine; the Académie française also includes the split-pea form. Stories about its name lead either to a Count de Saint-Germain who loved peas or to the pea fields around Saint-Germain-en-Laye. Its precise origin remains uncertain.

This recipe follows Jill Colonna’s dried-pea option. Fresh peas give her base soup a lighter character, while split peas make a thicker potage suited to the pantry. She adds carrot in place of sugar, softening it with leek in the bacon fat. There is no separate stock: the ingredients make their own broth as they simmer with water and herbs.

Blending gives the soup its smooth body, with a ladleful of peas returned afterwards for contrast. Butter enriches the finish. Chervil follows the classical garnish; parsley or dill offers the same fresh lift when it is easier to find.

Recipe and cooking notes adapted from Mad About Macarons.