How To Preserve Sweet Peas

The peas should be washed and shelled before being blanched for 11/2 minutes in boiling water, drained, and cooled in ice water. Good drainage package with a headspace of half an inch. enclose, then freeze.

Can fresh sweet peas be frozen?

Blanch the snap peas before freezing if you want to enjoy their flavor all year long! Straight from the frozen, add to stir-fries and other savory meals. Before cooking frozen sugar snap peas, there is no need to thaw them.

Directions:

  • Clean and drain the pea pods. Strings should be removed by snapping off the pod ends.
  • Prepare a sizable dish of ice water.
  • Bring water in a big pot to a boil. The sugar snap peas should only be cooked for 1 1/2 minutes after being added to the pot of quickly heating water. Drain.
  • Transfer the sugar snap peas to the ice water right away and let them sit there for two minutes. Drain.

On a baking sheet, arrange the blanched sugar snap pea pods in a single layer. For about an hour, freeze.

  • Date-mark the freezer bags or containers where you transferred the frozen sugar snap peas.

How can peas be preserved the best?

  • Snow peas and sugar snap pea pods can be preserved by freezing or salting. If you like using them in favorite recipes after preservation in this way, try some dried as well.
  • Dried green peas can be canned for use in soups that are already made, or they can be drained and used in salads, pilafs, or veggie burgers.

How to prepare green peas or pea pods

  • To shell green peas, break the pods open, scoop out the peas, and then throw the pods away.
  • Sliced or whole snow peas are both acceptable.
  • The pea and pod of sugar snap peas are consumed together.
  • You can take the string off of snow peas and sugar snap peas if you’d like. Trim or crimp the curly blossom end (next to the stem) to release the string; then, draw down the inside curve.
  • For optimal results, steam-blanch cooked veggies for one to two minutes before freezing, salting (brining), or drying either peas or pods (until tender-crisp). Drain in a strainer after cooling in ice water for 10 to 30 minutes.

3 to 4 cups of pods, 1 to 11/2 cups of shelled peas, and 1 to 11/2 cups of pea pure make up one pound of green peas. A pound of sugar snap peas or snow peas makes two to three dry quarts (4 to 6 cups trimmed).

How should garden-grown sweet peas be stored?

  • Eat peas as soon as you can after selecting them because as soon as you pluck them, the sugar that gives them their sweetness starts to convert into starch.
  • Peas should be kept at 32–40°F (0–4°C) and 95–98% relative humidity. Making cold, humid storage is difficult. In addition to providing cold, refrigerators also dry the air.
  • To keep peas moist, place them in a perforated plastic bag in the refrigerator’s vegetable crisper drawer.
  • Peas can be stored in the fridge for 5 to 7 days.
  • Frozen peas should be utilized if they won’t be used within a week.
  • Peas that are kept too long or at too low a temperature can soften and begin to oxidize.

How are sweet pea pods frozen?

Before placing the peas in the freezer, they must be blanched. Put 4 quarts of water in a kettle and bring to a boil to blanch. Prepare the pods as directed in the preceding sentence while the water is heating. Boiling water is added to 2 to 3 cups of pea pods, then they are covered. Set the timer for exactly 1.5 minutes, then immediately remove from heat. The pea pods should be immediately placed in a bowl of ice water for two minutes to stop the cooking process after draining off the water (keep it and use it to water plants once it has cooled!).

Pea pods should be taken out of the basin and dried on paper towels. Snow peas or sugar snap peas should be put in freezer bags or containers, sealed, labeled, and kept there.

They can last for up to 8 months. Beyond that point, they’ll still be “decent,” but the quality starts to deteriorate.

Can fresh peas be frozen without being blanched?

Peas should be harvested when they have a good round shape and aren’t so large as to crowd one another and strain the pea pod’s sides. When inspecting your peas, compare the texture of a tiny, medium, and large pea pod before tasting one to determine the flavor differences between the various sizes. Always err on the side of underripe fruit rather than overripe if in doubt.

Take a close look at the pea shells to determine the stage the peas are in if you are purchasing them from a farmer’s market. About 90% of them should resemble the ones in the middle of the image above. Leave the tight, lumpy shells if there are a lot of them since they are overripe and will taste starchy rather than sweet. You’ll receive terrific flavor but not much volume if there are too many too small items, so you might want to hold off until the following week’s market.

Look at the size of the peas in the first pea pod in the shot below. You’ll also notice that they are a different shade of green from the juicy, sweet, and tender peas in the bottom of the pod. That top pod is past its prime.

Managing Time

As soon as you can after gathering or purchasing, shell and freeze your peas. Once plucked, peas will continue to deteriorate. Additionally, they’ll begin to dry out and become limp. To preserve that fresh, sweet flavor, process them straight away.

3. Adequate Processing

I wish I could tell you that blanching peas is not necessary. Though you do. Even though there are a ton of websites online that claim you don’t have huge, you actually do! I am a Professional Home Economist, therefore I have both formal training and practical expertise in this area. Yes, even though I should have known better, I fell for internet blogs that said I didn’t need to blanch peas. I was duped into not blanching many bags of peas before freezing them. MAJOR MISTAKE! A few months later, I removed those peas because their color and flavor weren’t appealing. The peas had a harsh and starchy flavor. The peas’ aging enzymes continued to age them even in the freezer, just as my professors predicted they would. My fresh, sensitive peas had the same unpleasant flavor as those large, fat peas that we detest.

Therefore, despite what you may read online, DO NOT freeze peas without blanching them first!

You must first blanch the vegetables in order to stop the aging enzymes and effectively retain flavor, color, texture, and nutritional loss.

Use your peas within two to three months if you go against blanching them to avoid the consequences of aging and an odd flavor.

Do peas need to be blanched before freezing?

The sweet flavor and soft texture of fresh peas are significantly better retained by freezing than by pressure canning. Additionally, it retains more nutrients from this beneficial vegetable than canning does.

Before freezing the peas, quickly blanching them in hot water assures that they will maintain their vibrant green color and not mush up when you need to use them in a recipe.

The initial single-layer freeze stops the peas from forming clumps. When you have a quart container of frozen peas but only need to remove a cup of them for a dish, for instance, the fact that they stay flexible is a huge benefit.

How are peas stored for the summer?

a simple recipe for making fresh green pea jam at home. When green peas are urgently needed or when peas are out of season, frozen peas are fantastic. While readily available in stores, home-preserved frozen peas are better for you and more flavorful.

Instructions

The peas should be shelled, and any bad peas should be thrown away. After shelling, 2 kg of peas will produce roughly 1 kg.

Regain the boil after adding the peas. The peas only need another two minutes of blanching.

When they have cooled, divide them into smaller batches and store them in freezer bags for later use.

Notes

  • It is preferable to boil peas in batches as opposed to all at once when canning a large quantity. This would guarantee that they cook uniformly. The peas will lose their color and shrivel up if you cook them for an excessively long time.
  • In the midst of the season, choose your peas. Peas aren’t particularly sweet at the start and conclusion of the season.
  • Take out the necessary amount, wash it under running water, and use as needed. Alternatively, give the peas some time to warm up. Add the peas toward the end of the dish because they have already been cooked.

How are peas dried at home?

To improve quality and safety, it is advised to blanch veggies beforehand. Blanching enhances color and texture, relaxes tissues to hasten the drying process, cuts down on the time needed to rehydrate vegetables, and aids in the eradication of potentially dangerous germs.

  • Wash and shell the peas.
  • Bring 1 gallon of water in a large cooking pot to a rolling boil.
  • As an anti-microbial agent, you can optionally add 1 teaspoon (4 grams) of citric acid to the water.
  • Put no more than four cups of the vegetable pieces in a cheesecloth or fabric mesh bag with the ends fastened, or in a blanching basket.
  • Make sure the water completely covers the vegetables when you lower them into the boiling water.
  • If necessary, shake so that hot water reaches every piece.
  • The table below shows the time to blanch for your elevation.
  • As soon as the water returns to a boil, begin timing.
  • To ensure continual boiling, keep an eye on the heat.
  • Vegetables should be taken out of the boiling water and briefly placed in a large dish of ice to stop the cooking process.
  • Don’t cook until it reaches room temperature.
  • Drain on a cloth or paper towel.
  • Continue until the entire batch has been blanched and chilled.

4. Dry

  • Place single layers of blanched peas on drying trays.
  • Dry in a dehydrator or oven at 140°F (60°C).
  • During the drying process, if necessary, flip the pieces over every three to four hours.
  • Vegetables can scorch quickly as drying progresses, so keep an eye on them more carefully.
  • Green, wrinkly, and hard dried peas are ideal.
  • Total drying time in a dehydrator: 8 to 10 hours (may take up to twice as long in a conventional oven)

5. Store

  • Small quantities of cooled, dried veggies should be kept in airtight containers or bags.
  • Label packages with the product’s name, the date, and the pretreatment and drying procedures.
  • Keep in the fridge or freezer, or in a cool, dry, dark area.
  • Dried vegetables keep well for 6 to 12 months when stored properly.
  • Foods that smell bad or have mold growth should be thrown away.

6. Making Use of Dried Veggies

  • You can consume dried vegetables “as is” as a snack or as a component of a meal.
  • The easiest approach to rehydrate veggies is to just add dry vegetables straight to soups and stews.

Without a freezer, how may green peas be preserved?

Although it may seem like an unnecessary step, quickly turning fresh peas in boiling, salty water before freezing:

  • only sufficiently cooks them to remove their raw flavor.
  • keeps their vibrant green hue intact.
  • until you can use them, it keeps them crisp and tender and stops them from becoming mushy.

spring

  • From March to May, you can easily plant your young sweet pea plants outside. Before planting out, sweet pea seeds sown in the winter or autumn need to be potted up into larger containers. Spring-sown seeds can be transplanted from their rootrainers.

summer

  • Pick your sweet peas, then put them in indoor vases. Remove the seed pods from your sweet peas to continue deadheading them. You’ll need to harvest and deadhead them frequently when they’re at their height.

How should peas be blanched before freezing?

Shelled peas or butter beans should be washed before blanching in boiling water for 2 minutes, cooling immediately in ice water, and draining well. Packaging should be done in zip-top plastic freezer bags or airtight containers with a headspace of 1/2 inch or less. Up to six months, seal, and freeze. Frozen peas shouldn’t be thawed before cooking. In recipes calling for washed and drained canned peas, fresh or frozen field peas can be used in place of the canned peas. Just substitute 2 cups of cooked, drained peas for 1 (15-oz) can.