Latvian Grey Peas with Onions and Bacon - Pelēkie zirņi ar sīpoliem un speķi

Serves: 4

🍲 Slow Cooker Recipe

Ingredients

200 g dried Latvian grey peas
100 grams Speck (or smoked bacon)
1 medium onion, finely diced
500 ml – 1 litre stock or water
Salt, to taste
Pepper, to taste

Directions

Soak the grey peas overnight in lots of water. Drain, rinse and pick over for stones. Place in slow cooker, cover with stock, and cook on High until the peas are tender but still have a bit of bite. (Plan for 4 – 5 hours.) When the peas are nearly done, fry the onion and speck/bacon together with salt and pepper to taste, until nicely browned. Spoon the bacon and onions over a bowl of peas to serve,

My Notes

This dish was on my Must-Try list when we visited Riga and I loved it so much we bought some dried peas back home with us. 😍

The 1st time I made this, I used 500 ml stock and left the slow cooker on Low, and the peas still had some bite to them after 5 hours but were fantastic.
The 2nd time I made this, I used 1 litre of water, 2 cubes of “smoked bacon” flavoured stock cubes, and put the raw onions into the slow cooker. After 5.5 hours on High they were nicely cooked and more tender than the first time. The litre is probably too much water (we took some liquid out to use it to make rice with instead of plain water) but next time I’ll only use 750 ml and see if that’s a happy medium.