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The princess and the pea pods

Posted on July 2nd, 2009 – 7:43 AM
By Robyn Dochterman

Last year, I wanted to eat pea pods. I wanted them so badly I could practically taste them. I planted and nurtured and waited for the magical day when all my pea pod dreams would come true.

Only, some critter rudely ate the blooms off them and I got none.

So this year, I planted a kingdom of different kinds of pea pods (who even knew there were several varieties?). Then I  surrounded the garden with seven feet of fence to keep out the marauding riff-raff.

Ta-dum –I have pea pods!

Gallon bags upon gallon bags of pea pods. Pea pods to feed all the serfs in the neighborhood village. Enough pea pods to pile high and climb up to Jack’s beanstalk.

When I was a kid, I remember helping freezing green beans and sweet corn. But not pea pods. There just aren’t any family fairy tales I can refer to for guidance here.

Can I freeze them? Do I blanch them and then plunge them in cold water like green beans? For how long? Or should I just get creative and figure out how to eat them?

This entry was posted on Thursday, July 2nd, 2009 at 7:43 am and is filed under Beans + Peas. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

13 Responses to "The princess and the pea pods"

Geoff says:

July 2nd, 2009 at 9:00 am

A few should never make it out of the garden (I will assume this is already the case; otherwise you’re doing it wrong ;-) ). The rest need to be picked daily, and sauteed in a medium-hot pan with a tablespoon of butter and some kosher salt for only a minute or two. Squeeze half a lemon over them and serve.

If you’re not picking and eating them every day, you did something wrong.

Judybusy says:

July 2nd, 2009 at 9:43 am

I don’t know if they can be frozen, but I love using them in Chinese dishes…oh, it’s the farmer’s market today, I’d better get some! The tender vine tips are also tasty in stir-fries.

Cathy says:

July 2nd, 2009 at 10:48 am

if you really can’t eat them all, donate them to a food shelf. they should freeze just fine, however; they are in many varieties of frozen stir-fry veggies.

pax says:

July 2nd, 2009 at 11:04 am

According to my BH&G cookbook peapods can be frozen. Small flat pods should be blanched for 90 seconds, large flat pods for 2 minutes. Proceed as you do with other veggies, shock them in ice water, drain and freeze.

Debw says:

July 2nd, 2009 at 11:04 am

What you can’t eat at once, blanch, pat dry on clean toweling, and flash freeze on a cookie sheet before putting in bags for the future. I offer this advice not having ever seen any peas out of my garden but from ancient history from my mothers garden ( I know my daughter lurks and will see this).

Geoff says:

July 2nd, 2009 at 11:12 am

If you’re going to flash freeze and don’t have access to the right tools (dry ice, or even better liquid nitrogen), then after you pat them dry you may want to refrigerate them in the bottom of your fridge for a bit, until they get as close to freezing as possible before putting them in a single layer on a metal sheet pan in the freezer. You want that transition from cold to freezing to go as fast as possible.

But dry ice is dry ice, and everyone should have a ton of that lying around the house anyway.

Robyn Dochterman says:

July 2nd, 2009 at 11:46 am

Thanks for the suggestions, you guys. Much appreciated. Now, gotta go find my dry ice…

laura says:

July 2nd, 2009 at 11:59 am

thank you for this, i’ve finally succeeded in planting more peas than i can eat while standing in my garden.

Kathleen says:

July 2nd, 2009 at 1:39 pm

Some food shelves will take fresh veggies and consider them a real treat for their customers. Sounds like you have enough to freeze and share!

Amelia Sprout says:

July 2nd, 2009 at 1:45 pm

Freeze away. Rinse, dry, lay flat and freeze. We never blanched, but I suppose you could. Flash freezing was never something we had access to either, but we lived.

I wonder if you could pickle a peapod.

Robin says:

July 4th, 2009 at 7:46 am

I tried to dry my pea pods, but they came out bitter. Has anyone tried to dry them and had success?

Rhonda Fleming Hayes says:

July 6th, 2009 at 8:50 am

I’ve been serving them raw, mixed with tiniest bit of olive oil and a sprinkle of coarse sea salt; they disappear quickly and everyone asks what did you do to them. I tell them and they say, no what did you do? It’s just too simple.

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