Pease Pudding with Yoghurt Sauce

A Main Course

For the vegetarian in the family; we had one once, she left home, she took up eating meat again. Then a couple of weeks ago she announced a renewed rejection of dead animal products (and fish), so I’ve been digging out some old veggie favourites.

How much more traditional can you get than Pease Pudding?

It’s utterly delicious, a teensy bit long winded to make but worth every ounce of effort. The layered effect both keeps the distinctive but complementary flavours separate and looks very attractive as well.

This dish work effectively as a meat substitute for a roast dinner (leave out the yoghurt sauce in favour of gravy) or, as I prefer it, on a spring or autumn evening with fresh salad and crunchy new potatoes.

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Ingredients (to feed four)

The Pudding Itself
175g / 6oz yellow split peas, rinsed and drained
175g / 6oz green split peas, rinsed and drained
a large onion, finely chopped – preferably one of those whacking great Spanish ones you see in greengrocers.
A generously sized stick of celery, trimmed and finely chopped
850ml / 1.5 pints vegetable stock (use a stock cube)
2 tablespoons of grated Parmesan cheese
1 tablespoon Dijon mustard (use French mustard if you haven’t got the genuine article – it works fine, but the taste is different)
1 large egg, beaten


Yoghurt Sauce
250g/ 8oz natural yoghurt
Some fresh coriander leaves
A small red chilli, de-seeded, finely chopped
Freshly ground black pepper

What to do:

Plop the split peas into two separate saucepans (green in one, yellow in the other – as if I needed to tell you that)

Put half the onion, half the celery and half the stock into each pan and bring to the boil, stirring frequently.

Once they’re boiling – lower the heat and simmer with the pans uncovered for around 30 minutes – perhaps a tad longer – until the peas are very tender and all of the liquid has been absorbed.
If the liquid is gone before the peas are very mushy, add a little more and keep a careful eye to prevent drying out and burning.

Remove from heat and allow to cool for about 10 minutes.

Stir the Parmesan into the yellow peas and the mustard into the green peas – it’s easiest to beat it in with a fork.

Beat half of the egg into each and add plenty of black pepper.

Spoon a third of the yellow peas into a lightly greased pudding bowl (capacity about 1.25 ltrs / 2 pint)

Cover the yellow peas with a third of the green ones, spread the rest of the yellow ones on top of that and then the remaining green ones atop again.

Cover the pudding bowl with greaseproof paper (tie it on with string) and steam the pudding for an hour.

While the pudding is steaming, prep the sauce.

Just mix all of the sauce ingredients together and refrigerate.

Once the pudding has finished steaming, remove it from the heat and allow to stand for 10 minutes (makes it easier to serve), then uncover. Run a knife around the edges of the bowl to loosen the pudding and turn carefully onto a warmed serving plate.

Serve straight away with the yoghurt sauce served separately.

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To drink? Try fresh fruit juices, perhaps a white wine spritzer. Also matches well with traditional ales.