In season peas

Eating fresh green peas is a relatively recent development. Until the 17th century, peas were mainly consumed as a cheap dried staple during winter, in the form of the English dish pease pudding, for example, which consisted of dried peas cooked for hours in a pot with a piece of bacon or ham. These days, of course, we have the luxury of eating peas snap-frozen when they are at their most nutritious, as well as access to other members of the pea family, including fresh sugar snap peas, snow peas and snow pea sprouts.

When fresh, all peas are at their best in spring, so now’s the time to enjoy these delicious emerald beauties in a salad, stir-fry or simple pasta.

The fresh peas you’ll find at the greengrocers are green or ‘garden’ peas, whose pods are not eaten, and sugar snap and snow peas, which are eaten with pod and all. You’ll also find snow pea sprouts or shoots, which are the small-leafed growing tips of the plant; and pea (usually snow pea) tendrils, which are the slender, curly, thread-like stems with a few leaves attached that peas use for climbing, although the name is often given to shoots, too.

In a dedicated or specialised greengrocers, you may also find petits pois (baby peas), which are simply ordinary green peas picked very young and small. These are necessarily expensive but an exquisite luxury. Like their older counterparts, they’re also available frozen.

Green peas

These deteriorate rapidly after picking, as their sugars immediately begin to turn to starch, to the