Tuesday, January 19, 2010

More Peas Please

So peas have recently become a staple of my diet. Frozen petit pois, at £1.50 a bag, to be exact. Now I have spent most of my life a pea-hater. The only peas I would eat (other than snow and snap, which don't really count) were fresh off the vine (?) and outta the pod, straight into my mouth. From my very own garden, of course. But then I discovered frozen peas. Now, to be precise, they HAVE to be just peas, none of this mixed vegetable shit. Just pure, unadulterated peas.

So maybe I'm making up for lost time or something (see cheesecake, milk) but I basically have them in everything. Heck, sometimes I even have just a bowlful of peas for dinner. DEEEEEE-LISH. Recently (quelle dommage!) I ran out of my stock and couldn't get to the grocery store for a while, but LUCKILY a frozen vegetable benefactor of mine hooked me up with some of the good stuff today. So more peas!

Now these recipes are a little bit boring, and probably don't really warrant a post of their own, but I just had to share my joy. So here are some ways to make delicious meals out of peas (you may start to see a theme after a while...).

Rice and Peas
Cook some rice. In the last five minutes or so of simmering, add some frozen peas. Alternatively, cook rice and peas separately and mix them together when they're done (this may be better for a rice cooker?). This also works really yummily with frozen corn, but that's not what this post is about.

Peas
Put peas in a bowl. Heat in the microwave (or, if you don't have a microwave *coughElizcough*, steam or boil them according to the directions on the package). Add butter and pepper. You could also add toasted caraway to change things up a bit.

Peas and potatoes
Boil some new potatoes (the little ones with the white or red skins) until cooked. Microwave some peas. Mix peas and potatoes together with a bit of butter (or nut oil? walnut oil would actually be super delicious) and pepper. Add salt, caraway OR raspberry vinaigrette, if you feel so inclined. Add the seasonings when hot and then leave it to soak up the yummy for a little while. This would probably be good hot or cold, so experiment away.

Pasta and peas
Cook some pasta. Also cook some peas. When they're both cooked, mix them together, with a bit of butter and pepper. You could also add some grated cheese (mozzarella, sharp cheddar or blue cheese would all work really well) and/or a little bit of cream. Or, once peas and pasta are cooked, you could saute them with a bit of minced ginger or ginger paste and some lemon juice (and maybe some lemongrass if you had some?). Actually, if you go that route, some pepper flakes or Asian chili sauce wouldn't go amiss, I think.

So there you have it. Peas are a delicious addition to everything and are super-duper versatile. And every day that ends with peas is going to be a good night. (Get it?! the Black-Eyed PEAS!!!)


5 comments:

  1. Frozen vegetable medleys are disgusting. Also, I really like pees and am going to buy some soon thanks to your inspiration, Zoe.

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  2. Thanks Zo! The rice-and-peas idea is a good one, or actually they all are. As it stands I never eat peas. THIS WILL CHANGE.

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  3. PS: I love how one of the recipe ideas is just "peas."

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  4. the just peas one is the best one! and how do they take such delicious ingredients (carrots, peas, corn) and turn them into one of the most disgusting things on the planet??

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  5. Seriously! Frozen carrots are the WORST.

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