Fresh or frozen, green, garden peas, one of my favorite vegetables.
I really only eat them boiled though, which was making me think maybe I’m missing out on something.
How about it? Ever have any really memorable pea dishes? Something out of the ordinary?
Saute some chopped bacon or pancetta, then take out the meat and saute some chopped onions or shallots, then add back the bacon and peas. When it’s all cooked toss with some cooked pasta, orecchiette or small shells work well, plus some ricotta and top with grated parmesan.
You could also cook them, mash them, and make pea filled ravioli. Tasty and great presentation but tricky and time consuming.
Also there is a classic French soup of garden peas sauteed with lettuce then pureed.
And fresh mint enhances the flavor of peas. Saute the peas gently in butter and stir in some finely sliced mint leaves at the end after the heat is turned off.
Mmm, peas.
Alton Brown’s pea burgers.
I eat my peas with honey.
I’ve done it all my life.
It makes the peas taste funny,
but it keeps them on my knife.
Sorry I got nothing else, but that rhyme my grandfather taught me years ago has been in my head for the last few days.
I don’t usually care for soup, but my local pub-grill makes unbelievable good soups. My favorite is a creamy pea with tarragon soup. Boil a lot of peas (we both use frozen), saute some onion in another pan, then drain peas and puree with onion in a food processor with some cream and milk (to thick creamy soup consistency), and some fresh tarragon. Add salt and pepper to taste. Incredibly easy and delicious.
I have several really tasty variations of guacamole in which peas are substituted for all or part of the avocado. (The color is absolutely gorgeous.)
The last time someone brought it to a pot luck I attended, I told her that if we had all been standing around her food processor as she made it, we would have been visualizing whirled peas.
I’ve made this Pea Dip with Parmesan a few times, and it was a big hit.
Peas and carrots, of course.
That way, if you have a kid, you can say ‘Eat every carrot and pea on your plate!’
Works better out loud.
My mom used to cream fresh garden peas and pearl onions. Tasty and easy. I’ve fixed them that way myself by steaming fresh peas (or thawing and barely heating frozen) and the onions, then adding a simple white sauce. The white sauce can be dressed up with just enough garlic or parmesan to flavor it, but not overpower the delicate flavor of the veggies.
This is an easy and terrifically tasty way to use peas.
‘Do you really think we can bring world peace just by eating this soup?’
A silly poem I remember from childhood
“I’ve eaten peas with honey
I’ve done it all my life
They do taste kind of funny
But it keeps them on the knife”
Never tried it as a recipe
David
Pea Salad! From the Homesick Texan, of course.
If you aren’t familiar with Indian paneer, don’t be misled by the “cottage cheese” description. Find an Indian grocery to start; if you like, you can make your own thereafter.
My mom used to make creamed peas on toast. One of the very few dishes of hers I remember fondly.
Fresh peas make a lovely addition, both flavor and texture-wise, to an ordinary tossed salad!
I’ve made this pea dumpling recipe a couple of times and it is a really great spring dish: Plump Pea Dumplings Recipe - 101 Cookbooks
I don’t know how fresh the produce is, but the only way I really love peas growing up was raw. (We had a garden) Not the pods or anything, but the peas themselves…holy schmoley, so much better than cooked! Absolutely delicious. Just pop them one at a time out of the sheath, roll on the tongue, press-pop against your teeth…it tastes like green! Like spring! And utterly like boiled-to-death peas.
If that’s not an option, the only other way I ate them at all was by mixing them <uncooked; canned and frozen peas are already cooked anyway, I swear> with diced raw white onions and italian salad dressing.
It doesn’t sound very good, but it really is! Unless you hate onions, too.
Here’s another version of pea salad. It’s hardly a Texas thing; you’ll find this all over the South.
My dad was born in Nebraska, lived as a child in Colorado, and joined the Navy in Southern California. He liked the peas-and-cheese salad. He used cheese (either mild cheddar or American), canned peas, and Miracle Whip.