In winter, when there are not many seasonal vegetables, green peas are a great addition to the daily diet. You can use it fresh, frozen or canned, as an independent side dish, or as a component of more complex and multi-component dishes.

Soups, salads, stews, vegetable stews - any dish will taste better if you add peas to them. Today we will talk about its main properties and give 2 recipes that will help you diversify your home menu.

What are the benefits and harms of green peas?

Green peas contain a fairly high amount of protein by vegetable standards. Despite this, it is very well and quickly absorbed by the human body. Peas are rich in vitamins A, C, H. In addition, they contain about 25 minerals beneficial to the body, including phosphorus, potassium, sodium, and iron.

Healthy fats, sugars, amino acids, lecithin - these are just a small part of the chemical composition of green peas. The vitamin K it contains helps absorb calcium and strengthens bones. Chloroform and antioxidants help prevent cancer by preventing the formation of cancer cells. Folic acid affects the growth, repair and metabolism of nerve cells, strengthening the nervous system.

Doctors recommend eating green peas to protect yourself from vitamin deficiency, kidney and liver problems. It helps remove sand from the kidneys, support the cardiovascular system, prevent heart attacks and strokes, so it must be present in the diet of older people. In addition, peas help maintain skin tone and youth, which is also important.

Like any product, green peas have contraindications. You should not get carried away with it if you have serious intestinal problems, during periods of exacerbation, or with stomach upsets. In case of gout and increased flatulence, its use should also be limited, but regular consumption of a small amount will not cause any significant harm, but on the contrary, will improve your well-being.

Canned peas

Today, many doctors and nutritionists talk about the dangers of canned peas. Try not to buy a product that says "freeze-dried". It is reconstituted from dry peas by sublimation. This is not a natural product, but only close to it in appearance.

But even in the composition of ordinary canned peas, not everything is so smooth - it contains dyes, preservatives, a huge amount of sugar and salt, which makes this product quite dangerous for the body.

Even when choosing well-known manufacturers and the “pure” composition of the product, it is worth thinking about the fact that for some reason the shelf life of such peas is not so short. Therefore, it is easier to preserve green peas yourself from young peas purchased in the summer season.

How to choose peas

In order for green peas to be beneficial, you need to choose them correctly. If you want to buy fresh peas, then focus only on young peas - elastic to the touch, best of all brain varieties. It should be a uniform color, a pleasant green color, without inclusions or spots. There should be no wormholes or visible damage, scratches or breaks; it should be tightly closed and appear juicy, not devoid of moisture.

If you choose frozen green peas, then buy a shock-frozen product. And definitely a well-known and reliable manufacturer. But if you really can’t give up canned peas, choose them based on their composition. The fewer additional ingredients other than peas and water listed, the better for your health.

Green pea sauce

This delicate, creamy sauce is the perfect complement to meat or vegetable dishes. Served with chopped cutlets, turkey meatballs, potato croquettes with cheese or pasta, it brings out the taste of the main dish and complements it with freshness and aroma.

Ingredients:

Fresh or frozen peas - 0.5 kg
Onions - 1 pc.
Flour - 1 tbsp. l.
Vegetable oil - for frying
Chicken broth - 350 ml
Cream 33% - 150 ml
Parsley - to taste
Salt, pepper - to taste

Cooking method:

Blanch the peas in boiling salted water for about 5 minutes. Remove with a colander and let the remaining water drain.

Finely chop the onion and fry in vegetable oil until transparent, sprinkle it with flour.

Pour the broth into the onion and simmer it over low heat for about 15 minutes.

Add the peas, leaving about 100 grams, and chopped parsley. Pour in the cream, puree, transfer to a gravy boat and add the remaining peas.

My family loves all kinds of gravies, various chutneys, and sauces. In my opinion, they are the ones who bring variety and give even the most ordinary dish juiciness and uniqueness.

This gravy goes wonderfully with boiled rice, various pasta, mashed potatoes and buckwheat porridge.

You can make the dish more liquid by adding the required amount of water.

The cheese and pea gravy can be supplemented with any fresh herbs according to your taste and desire.

Of the spices, I recommend our favorite set - asafoetida (a substitute for the taste of onions and garlic, as well as just a healthy spice), turmeric, ground black pepper, paprika. In addition to these spices, I strongly recommend trying black salt instead of regular salt, and a regular bay leaf would also be a good idea.

Heat vegetable (or melted butter) oil in a frying pan. Place Adyghe cheese, cut into small cubes. The heat should be lower than maximum so that the cheese does not burn, but high enough so that the cheese is not stewed, but fried. Depending on the moisture content of the cheese, it may sputter. Also, if you stir the cheese too often with insufficient heat, the cheese can turn into porridge, and we need neatly fried cubes.

Place the fried cheese on a plate, and add slices of peeled tomatoes to the frying pan, adding a little more oil. Add spices, stir and simmer until the tomatoes are soft.

Add tomato paste, sour cream, salt, stir. Bring to a boil. If necessary, you can add water at this stage.

Now it’s time for Adyghe cheese and canned peas. Place them on the frying pan.

Stir, bring to a boil and remove from heat.

Cheese and pea gravy is certainly good freshly prepared hot, and is best served that way, but chilled it will complement your everyday dishes quite well.

We will prepare the sauce for the salmon first, so that we can quickly cook the fish and serve it immediately, since the fish cooks very quickly.

Chop the shallots very finely. If you can’t buy shallots, you can take white onions, which have a milder taste, or regular onions. Pour olive (or any vegetable) oil into a suitable large, thick-bottomed saucepan, and when it heats up, add a piece of butter. As soon as the butter melts, add and sauté our chopped onion over low heat until soft, it should become transparent.

After this, add the frozen peas to the onions, without defrosting them directly, and cook, stirring, for several minutes.

After this, it’s time to add liquid to the sauce: fish broth or, in its absence, just boiling water, and cream. You can take cream of any fat content, ranging from ten to thirty-five percent fatty cream, depending on this, the sauce will have a more or less creamy taste.

Now season our sauce to taste with a pinch of sugar, salt and pepper and turn it into a homogeneous puree using an immersion blender. For perfect silkiness, you can rub the sauce through a sieve, but this is not necessary.

The sauce is ready and you can quickly cook the fish. I usually buy a piece of chilled salmon with the skin on, remove the skin, cut the fish into portions, remove the bones and then cook it using the chosen method. For this recipe, you can also use salmon or trout cut into steaks, if that’s more common.

Salmon is a fatty fish, so to fry it, I didn’t pour oil into the pan, I just brushed the bottom and that’s it. She rinsed the fish pieces, patted them with a paper towel, seasoned them with pepper and salt and fried them on all sides until fully cooked and golden brown, about ten minutes. Serve the fish immediately with pea sauce, herbs, and lemon wedges.

We offer you a recipe for an unusual but very tasty sauce. We will cook it with green peas. We are sure that it will fit firmly into your daily menu and will become quite popular in your family. The sauce perfectly complements various dishes and goes well with fish or meat.

Required Products

• green peas - 500 gr
• onion - 1 pc.
• paprika - 1 tsp
• flour - 2 tbsp
• vegetable oil - 2 tbsp
• butter - 1 tbsp
• cream - 200 ml
• water - 600 ml
• salt, pepper to taste

Let's start cooking

1. Peel the onion and cut into small pieces.
2. Pour vegetable oil into a saucepan with a thick bottom and add butter. Heat it well and add the onion. Fry it over low heat until golden brown and add paprika, mix everything quickly.
3. Add flour to the resulting mass and mix again. Pass everything together for 1 minute.
4. Then add water and quickly stir until smooth.
5. Salt and pepper the mixture to taste, mix and add green peas.
6. Bring the mixture to a boil and simmer under the lid ajar for 25-30 minutes.
7. Pour the cream into the finished sauce, stir and simmer for another 2 minutes. If desired, add dill to the sauce.
8. The finished sauce is best served with mashed potatoes prepared according to the recipe from our website.