Peas porridge hot?

This year, I've grown a lot of different dry soup peas (dry peas). I'm looking for a simple recipe to help me evaluate their taste and texture. I'll be cooking these in small amounts of about 1/2 cup of dry peas, then my favourite will be my main soup pea crop for next year.

Any favourite recipes for peas porridge or soup from dry peas?

trampledbygeese
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5 Comments

702551
702551 July 25, 2016
If I were evaluating the taste of several dry peas/beans, I'd simply cook them in water, adding a little salt at the end.

That would be the purest expression of the peas/beans.

You can turn them into frijoles (refried beans) after your taste test or just eat as is (I do the latter).
 
trampledbygeese
trampledbygeese July 25, 2016
Oh I agree and I've already started cooking them as is. I also want to get a full idea of what the peas would be like in recipes (and maybe some recipe ideas). The idea is to get a feel for what each variety excels at and where its limits are. Some taste meaty, some pea-y, some more like chickpeas. The flavours are so diverse, totally unlike store bought pulses, that I really want to get two or three different recipes and try each variety in them. Maybe one ham based soup, maybe one curry, maybe something else? Do you have any favourite recipes for dry peas?
 
702551
702551 July 25, 2016
I prefer to keep my beans/peas pretty simple. Actually, this goes for most of my cooking. I gravitate toward simple preparations, not something with ten ingredients and tons of spices. I prefer to let the flavors of one or two primary ingredients shine through.

I actually stopped making frijoles with onions and lard because I found those additions to be a bit distracting. I also found that I prefer certain beans over others. Ones that will frequently make it into my pantry are chickpeas, lentils (the French ones from Puy are nice), as well as my favorite, Peruano beans (a.k.a. Mayocoba).

Peruano beans as the name implies originated from Peru, but they are quite popular in certain parts of Mexico. I always keep a couple of pounds of these in my pantry.

I just cook in water and mash up some of them so there are whole beans in a puree; I like the texture difference and still get to see beans.

I know a lot of people are gung ho about bacon, ham, etc. in their bean soups, but I often find it distracting.

I rarely cook from recipes, so I have no recommendations there.
 
trampledbygeese
trampledbygeese July 25, 2016
I'm not sure what sort of recipe I want. Bacon and/or ham sounds delicious!

To tell the truth, I've never cooked whole dry peas before. Always, it's been a split pea (with commercial split peas) soup with a heavy ham broth. I don't get much of the pea taste that way. This year is the international year of the pulse, so I decided to dedicate a big portion of my garden to dry beans and peas... only... I didn't think of what I would do with them in the kitchen. Now the pea harvest is in, it's time to start cooking. The eventual goal is to find my favourite then grow peas, beans, favas, lentils and chickpeas every year for drying. They improve the soil as well as make a long-storing staple food - well worth the effort.

I would like to cook these whole. I want to get an experience of the flavour of each kind of pea, but I don't want it to be overwhelming. If that makes sense. I'm putting each pulse through its paces as it were. I'll do a batch of just boiled peas topped with butter, or olive oil, or bacon drippings, but I'm also looking for other recipes that have dry peas as a main ingredient.
 
C S.
C S. July 25, 2016
Trampled by Geese, Are you looking for a pea soup recipe like split pea soup, or do you want to cook them up simply without ham or other vegetables to just taste the peas? I'm impressed with your research and production!
 
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