Vegetable
Pea
GuisantePèsolPisum sativum
As soon as it leaves the plant, its sugar starts turning into starch. That's why a freshly shelled one tastes of something else: sweet, almost like fruit.
When
Around: Feb–May · At its best: Mar–Apr
Around: Feb–May · At its best: Mar–Apr
Around: Aug–Nov · At its best: Sept–Oct
Around here
Maresme peas are famous, especially in Sant Andreu de Llavaneres, which holds a food festival for them every spring. Varieties grown there include garrofal, with large peas, and floreta, smaller and finer. In Catalan cooking they're made like broad beans: a la catalana, with black botifarra and mint.
At the market
- Bright green, taut pods that snap when you bend them.
- Avoid yellowish, wrinkled or very fat pods: the peas will be floury.
- Taste one raw if they let you: it should be sweet.
- A kilo of pods gives about 400 grams of peas.
At home
- Cook them the same day or the next: every hour counts.
- Meanwhile, keep them in the fridge, still in their pods.
- Shelled, in a tub in the fridge, one or two days at most.
If you have too much
- Freeze them: shelled, blanched for a minute, cooled in iced water and dried. Spread them on a tray first so they don't stick together.
- Well frozen, they keep for about eight months.
- Don't bin the pods: boiled and strained, they make a sweet stock for rice or soup.
In the kitchen
- Raw, just shelled, in a salad.
- Peas with ham and spring onion, barely five minutes.
- A la catalana, with black botifarra, pancetta and mint.
- As a soup, cold or hot, with mint.
- In a rice dish or an omelette, with broad beans and green garlic.
What it brings
Per 100 g, raw.
- Energy
- 81 kcal
- Water
- 79% water
- Carbs
- 14.5 g
- Sugars
- 5.7 g
- Fibre
- 5.7 g
- Protein
- 5.4 g
Stands out for
- High in vitamin C40 mg · 50% of what you need in a day
- High in vitamin K24.8 µg · 33% of what you need in a day
- High in folate65 µg · 33% of what you need in a day
- Source of fibre5.7 g
Data from the USDA (FoodData Central). See the full table ↗ · How we decide what stands out
Goes with
- Broad beanFeb–MayYou buy a kilo and end up with a handful: the pod weighs more than the beans. The first small, tender ones can even be eaten raw.
- ArtichokeNov–MayIt's a flower bud eaten before it opens. It also leaves a sweet aftertaste that makes water, or wine, taste different straight afterwards.
- AsparagusMar–JunWhite and green asparagus are the same plant: the white kind grows buried in soil and never sees the sun. The thin, bitter one that pops up wild along field edges is another species.