Wednesday, February 20, 2008

Sugar Snap Pea Tops/Greens/Tendrils


A week or so ago we visited the farmer's market by UCI (Univ. of California, Irvine) near us. It's the largest in our area, but about 6 miles away, so we don't visit this one very often. I'm glad we did, though. All the vegies I bought that day were so very fresh. Certainly fresher than what I buy at the grocery store. There was a lot of repetition, of course, because of the winter season - lots of carrots, root vegetables, cauliflower, winter squashes, apples, oranges and pears. But at one stand they had all different kinds of greens. The proprietor said, in her halting Asian accented English, that this bunch of green stuff was the tops of sugar snap peas. They were such a beautiful color. I should have snapped a photo of the before picture. A huge bunch was just enough for two servings.

I hadn't a clue what to do with them. A search on the internet for "sugar snap pea tops" disclosed nary a hit. So, I did what I thought was the best thing: first I washed them thoroughly. The larger stems were big enough that I thought they might be tough, so I pinched them off, leaving me with a huge mound of the pure tops, leaves and tendrils. I thoroughly enjoyed tossing them (for a total of about 3 -4 minutes) in a hot pan with a bit of olive oil, garlic and butter. I hit them with a shot of salt and pepper, and served. We both lapped it up in nothing flat. DH wanted seconds. Sorry, honey, all gone.

4 comments:

Madame K said...

Mmmm...I could lap those up too. They look oh-so-healthy and delicious.

Anonymous said...

I've recently been growing pea-shoots on my windowsill and eating them raw in sandwiches and salads. The flavour is the very essence of 'pea-ness' and so good for us! I'd not thought of cooking them but I shall now.

Carolyn T said...

They really were delicious. If we return to that farmer's market soon, I'm going to buy more. No question about that. I wish I could grow them, but we have squirrels who would nip those little shoots before they even leafed out. Just be sure to cut or buy a lot of them. The bunch I bought was quite large (larger than I could get my hand around) and that was just enough for two servings.

Anonymous said...

Shame you'd lose them to squirrels, could you grow them indoors as I've been doing? They were sown in January and were ready to snip in 5 weeks. I shall certainly try them with garlic and oil, perhaps at the weekend. I hope you manage to get more from the farmer's market soon.