That we eat pea shoots nowadays is a happy coincidence. It started when I had about 100 grams of dried peas soaked in a pot of water with the intention of cooking them the next day and processing them into soup.
So far, so good … were it not that my – sometimes somewhat confused – mind completely forgot them. What also didn’t help is that I placed that cooking pot in the storage room completely out of sight 🙂
When I found out three days later, the peas were more than ‘soaked’ and they started sprouting. Shit, shit, shit!
Happily, there is a woman in my life who knows what has been done. For example, she had read somewhere that young pea shoots are very tasty and fit perfectly with (for example) a salad. So how do we do that?
Step 1: sprouting
Take a handful of dried peas, soak them in a pot of water and ‘forget’ them until they start sprouting 😉
Of course, fresh peas can also be used. In that case, you do this in a sealable plastic bag and put them in your fridge. Make sure that the peas are not crushed. As soon as they start sprouting (a white spine comes out of the pea), take them out of the bag and follow the next steps. Do not use frozen peas, of course, it won’t work.
Step 2: Planting
Fill a flower pot with a diameter of ± 12 cm (top) up to a few centimeters from the edge with earth. Place a 10 – 12 sprouted peas on top and cover with some extra soil. Do not press it (too hard)!
This is for just a few shoots. Do you want more, take a big, but flat growing tray (instead of the flowerer pot) like this one.
You can of course also plant outside, but then it will take longer before they start growing.
We planted a part of the peas in the garden and let them grown so we got a new pea plant and could harvest peas.
3. Grow and harvest the pea shoots
Place the future shoots in a sunny spot (in our case near the kitchen window) and give them regularly (read: every 2 to 3 days) fresh water.
You can see the first shoots after a few days and after about 6 to 7 days (picture below) they are big enough to consume. If you cut the shoots above the leaves, the shoot will grow again and again and you will never be left without stock.
Where forgetfulness is good for, isn’t it?
Have you ever tried to grow pea shoots yourself? Let me know in the comments 🙂
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