Peas are a great source of vegetable protein and make delicious meals. However, many housewives rarely cook peas. And all because there are a lot of hassles with peas: it cooks for a long time, then it burns, then it remains tough, then it turns into porridge. A few helpful tips will make it easier for you to deal with peas.
If you are going to boil peas
– Soak it overnight. The peas should soak in clean, cold water for at least six hours. But you do not need to soak for a very long time, otherwise your peas, what good, will begin to ferment. If it seems to you that the peas, despite the long soaking, are not swollen enough, drain the old and pour in fresh cold water – let it lie still. And do not forget to sort out the peas before soaking, just in case.
– After the soaking time has elapsed, drain the water, rinse the peas and refill with cold water. For 300 g of peas, you need to take two to three liters of water.
– Put the peas on low heat and let them cook there. Ideally, the peas in the saucepan should rise and fall slowly as they cook. You do not need to close the pot with a lid. Be sure to descale. Since the water will boil away, add a new portion of cold water every half hour. Thus, the peas are boiled for a maximum of 1.5 – 2 hours, but usually faster.
– Oil, spices and salt are added to boiled ready-made peas. Do not boil peas in salt water – this makes them “dubious”.
– If you want to cook the peas faster, take chopped or split peas.
– Do not add baking soda to the water in which the peas are boiled. In such water, peas, perhaps, will boil down a little faster, but problems with its digestion inside, in the stomach, will invariably overtake you. The fact is that peas contain substances that slow down the digestive processes. And in order to remove these substances from peas, you need a long soaking and long cooking.
Crushed peas
In fact, the hassle of cooking peas can be avoided by cooking them in a pressure cooker. To do this, the peas are soaked for two hours (do not forget to just sort out the peas so that no pebbles are accidentally caught). Put the washed peas in the pressure cooker, close the lid and put the pan on the fire. About 20 minutes after the water has boiled, the pressure cooker can be removed from the heat, but do not open, but let it stand for about 10 minutes.
It is also convenient to cook the peas in a slow cooker: we sort it out, soak it for 2-3 hours, rinse it, fill it with water, select the “stewing” mode, press “start” and forget about the peas for an hour and a half. This is if you need pea puree. If you have smoked pea soup, soak the peas in hot water for an hour. Cut all the ingredients – potatoes, carrots, onions and ribs – and put them along with the washed peas in the multicooker bowl, add salt and water. An hour in soup mode will be enough. For this recipe, 300 g of smoked meats are taken per liter of water, 80 g each of dried peas, carrots, potatoes and onions.