As Sweet as Peas in a Pod

Fresh or Frozen - Take Your Pick of the Healthy Harvest

Aug 14, 2009 Allan Johnson

They may be small and roll off the fork too easily, but they pack a punch if you can pick & eat them within a few hours. A palatable legume with an interesting pedigree.

Peas have been around a very long time. Early archaeological finds of dried peas in Egypt date back to at least 4000BC, from where they spread in all directions, reaching Europe by 3000 BC (1). Green peas (eaten fresh from the pod) were introduced into the UK from Europe during the 16th century, but were comparatively expensive and regarded as a delicacy, especially among the French Aristocracy. The English excelled in the cultivation of the well-known garden pea (Pisum sativum) and its popularity quickly spread to North America around 1800, where the birth of the canning industry in 1869 made green peas available all the year round.

The ancestral varieties of the pea family were either wild (Pisum sativum ssp elatius) or pale grey (Pisum sativum ssp arvense). Both were allowed to dry in the pod before harvesting and stored as split peas, rather like lentils. The advantages were twofold. First, they had a considerable shelf life and could be transported long distances. Secondly, they could be easily incorporated into a variety of dishes without losing their protein and starch content - the latter helping to thicken up soups and stews. As a staple crop, they have sustained generations of families across the centuries. With the advent of frozen food processing in the 1920s, the luxury of fresh garden peas was suddenly on the table in all seasons, making them one of our favourite vegetables.

The Biochemistry of Flavour

Why do frozen peas taste better than fresh ones? The answer lies in the biochemistry of the pea (2). Fresh peas lose their sweetness quickly after picking, even when left in the pod. Their high sucrose content (5.8%) quickly deteriorates as it changes into starch. Shell-on peas in shops may be several days old, and taste disappointingly bland. This is why frozen peas are picked, processed and frozen within two-and-a-half hours, to retain their sugary taste. Within the UK, the county of Norfolk is one of the largest producer of peas for freezing in Europe, with a unique eastern coastline ideally suited to pea production.

Tinned peas often start off as rehydrated dried peas - subjected to high temperatures to kill the microbes responsible for spoilage. Unfortunately, this removes the green chloropyhll, along with most of the thiamine and vitamin C. To restore their colour, a bright green dye is added, together with sodium bicarbonate to produce a better “mush” factor for the well known version sold alongside fish and chips in the UK. The end result has little in common with the garden pea.

Nutritional Close-up on the Pea Family

• Fresh and frozen peas are a good source of vitamin A, vitamin B6, vitamin C, folate, thiamine (B1), niacin, iron, zinc and phosphorus. As dried pulses, they are rich in protein, carbohydrate and fibre and low in unsaturated fat, but retain their mineral content.
• Like all fresh vegetables, they are low in sodium, but this changes drastically if salt is added during cooking or processing.
• A 100 gram (3.5oz) serving of peas provides approximately 80 kilocalories, 5g of protein, 14g of carbohydrate and 5g of fibre.
• One generous serving of cooked frozen garden peas contains as much vitamin C (approx 12mg) as two small apples, despite a 50% loss of vitamin C due to cooking (3).

Special Features

• Peas are one of our most versatile vegetables. They are at home in risottos, kedgerees, omelettes, pizzas, pastas, soups, salads, casseroles and not least curries, where dried peas are still used widely in Indian dhal recipes.
• There's very little wastage involved in the culinary sense - even pea pods can be used in soups or stews. The seed-cases of sugar or snap peas are so tender they can be eaten along with the contents. Hence their alternative name of mange-tout.
• The protective cover of the pod deflects most of the pesticides used in pea production, so no need to go organic - if you can’t afford them!
• Peas were the first vegetable to be scientifically bred for improved characteristics, thanks to the labours of an Austrian monk, Gregor Mendel. He laid the foundations of modern genetics in the 1860s by analysing the results of countless cross pollinations of sweet peas and other legumes. His work was ignored at the time, but thanks to his inspired research, we now know how many beans make five....

References

1. Davidson A. (2008) The Penguin Companion to Food. Penguin Books.
2. Fox B, Cameron A. (1995) Food Science, Nutrition and Health. Arnold.
3. Food Standards Agency (2002) The Composition of Foods.The Royal Society of Chemistry.

The copyright of the article As Sweet as Peas in a Pod in Nutrition is owned by Allan Johnson. Permission to republish As Sweet as Peas in a Pod in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.

Perfect Pea Pods

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