Pea greens nutrition contains a diversified range of nutrients that are very healthy to consume for maintaining health. These are tips or shoots of green peas, are immature sweet tendrils about the size of a palm, and are highly nutritious, edible, and possess bright to dark green tones.
They are considered among the fast and massively grown Asian crops of the winter season. Pea-green tendrils grow as fast as they can be harvested just after 45 days of planting in fertile soil.
If they aren’t cut after 45-50 days of seedling accordingly, they start maturing and turn into fully grown plants ready to give snow peas or another green type green pea in beautiful greenish crispy pods. A plant harvested 2-3 times becomes old and starts to low quality yield because at the same time its short life span plant.
Scientific Overview
Pea greens, the shoots of garden peas, are known by the scientific name Pisum Sativum. They belong to the Kingdom Plantae, family Fabaceae, and genus Pisum. Although they are a part of common peas so they possess the same binomial nomenclature as the whole pea vegetable. All pea categories possess common scientific nomenclature.
Pea Greens Nutrition Values Per 100grams
| Macronutrients | Values |
| Carbohydrates | 4g |
| Proteins | 3.8g |
| Fats | 0.4g |
| Dietary Fiber | 3.3g |
| Micronutrients | Values |
| Vitamin A ( Retinol ) | 1133IU |
| Vitamin B1 ( Thiamin ) | 0.24mg |
| Vitamin B2 ( Riboflavin ) | 0.27mg |
| Vitamin B3 ( Niacin ) | 1.1mg |
| Vitamin K ( Phytonadione ) | 3.3mg |
| Vitamin E ( alpha-tocopherol ) | 280µg |
| Minerals | Values |
| Copper | 0.08mg |
| Iron | 1.0mg |
| Magnesium | 22mg |
| Calcium | 34mg |
| Zinc | 0.40mg |
| Phosphorus | 61mg |
| Manganese | 1.11mg |
| Total Calories | 27 Kcal |
Pea Sprouts Health Benefits
- Pea greens nutrition possess a moderate source of various minerals and electrolytes, including magnesium, phosphorus, and iron. They provide a limited amount of calcium, potassium, manganese, and zinc.
- Substantial quantities of vitamin K improve calcium requirements for the bone framework. Adequate amounts of vitamin K levels can improve cognitive functioning through neuronal upkeep.
- They are a massive source of vitamin C, a powerful antioxidant found in natural foods. Foods rich in this vitamin help protect the body from scurvy disease, boost resistance against infectious agents (boosts immunity), and scavenge harmful, pro-inflammatory free radicals from the body. These are perfect anti-inflammatory microgreens, if you are having from a long time inflammation internally or externally, this green will act fighting for inflammation and heal the spot.
- The pea shoots and leaves contribute to an abundance of vitamin B-complex nutrients, such as thiamin, riboflavin, niacin, vitamin B-6 (pyridoxine), and pantothenic acid, which not only promote optimal cellular performance but also stimulate metabolic processes.
Benefits at Micronutrients Level
- Pea tendrils offer a lot of vitamin A. 100 g of freshly chopped leaves contain 1133 International Units of vitamin A and 4100 g of beta-carotene. Groups of beta-carotenes become our beloved vitamin A in people. Studies revealed that cognitive and oral health was supported by vitamin A and flavonoid consumption in vegetables.
- Fresh shoots are rich in folates. 100 g of fresh fruit would consist of 91 g of folates or 22 grams. This vitamin may help prevent neural tube defects in the baby’s body when administered to unborn mothers in advance.
- Flavonoid phytochemicals found in plant foods are especially rich in antioxidants, which fight the carcinogenic effects of estrogen. Together, the xanthin and -carotene found in these phytochemicals, which block the anticancer impacts of estrogen, can help you reduce the risk of several types of cancer, such as ovarian cancer.
- Fresh sprouts and leaves are among the most low-calorie vegetables. One hundred grams offer only 27 calories but offer many essential nutrients, such as antioxidants, vitamins, and minerals.
Very common benefits not only pea tendrils but many other greens have is that they are best known for boosting immunity and eliminating harmful toxins due to their ability to speed up the metabolism. They are best for treating obesity.
Autumn Enloe
Pea Shoots Nutritional Stability
Pea shoots are comparatively more stable than other green foods as they have the ability to retain their original nutritional value during the preservation or storage period.
We know every food after harvest, goes into many different supply chain processes during which they deviate from their original components in terms of nutrition which is somehow not true in the case of pea shoots.
To minimize this problem of getting deviated from original nutrition and health properties, you could consider growing your own plant to get the yield quickly at home without losing something from it, the benefits of growing at home are more than anything else.
Pea Greens Recipe
There are dozens of recipes to cook pea greens, but in case you really care about your health instead of a great spicy taste, the following recipe will be good for you in order to get proper nutrition from leaves.
- Wash pea leaves carefully with fresh water to remove the dirt they are having from the time they were cultivated. You can ignore this step If you are considering a packet from the supermarket.
- After washing, place them on a cloth piece to get the water on the surface completely absorbed properly by the cloth. Take a knife and make small pieces from 1-2 inches.
- After chopping into pieces, place a nonstick frying pan on the stove from low to medium flame, spray the pan with oil, you can use butter, extra virgin olive oil, or any other refined cooking oil. I would suggest not using unrefined cooking ghee as it can ruin the minimalist nutrition of such tendrils.
- Allow the pan to heat, then add chopped onion and garlic about half of the weight of leaves, and medium fry them for about 5 minutes to let them light brown.
- Add about 50 grams of chopped tomato, a tablespoon of black pepper, and a little pinch of table salt, try to use pink Himalayan salt if available.
- Cover the pan with a lid and steam it for 5 minutes. Remove the lid and fry on the same flame for 5 minutes while stirring the mixture. Remove the mixture and transfer it to a plate. Add a spoonful of butter on the top if available as a garnish.
- Enjoy the meal with bread, substitute full-grain bread with brown or full-grain chapati, or use white or brown rice instead.
Stir Fried Pea Shoots Recipe
Where To Buy Pea Greens
Pea greens aren’t really tough and time taking to grow and cultivate at home, but yes the fact is it’s obviously a time taking for those who don’t really like to invest time in it or those who are already clocking a busy schedule.
- They can easily be bought from any nearest supermarket that has a vegetable section. If for any reason you aren’t finding them at any store, you can simply order them from Walmart or Amazon, this will actually save you time.
- If you are a plant lover and love to practice gardening at home, then keep going to find threads on how to grow them in home pots, this isn’t a high-maintenance plant.
How To Grow Pea Shoots From Dried Seeds At Home
If you aren’t finding any pea greens packages from the market then you are not limited to just this, you can effortlessly grow them yourself in your window or if you are owning a backyard garden.
If you are a die-hard planting fan, then it will never be a tough job for you, in fact, you will enjoy all the stuff doing here.
Also, you aren’t obliged to buy seeds from a plant nursery, what you have to do is just take dried peas from any nearest store and soak them in room temperature water for about 5-10 minutes to let their outer layer become soft.
Steps Wise Growing Guide
- Take a mud pot and gently clean it with a tissue or any rough cloth piece, you can also use regular plastic trays for plants easily available these days.
- Fill the pot with compost to its mid, making sure the compost you are using isn’t waste or second hand, you can also use regular soil but fertile filled with nutrients or you can also use a mixture of both.
- Shower the compost 3-5 times using a regular plant shower, now take dried pea seeds out of the water and place them on a piece of paper to let the water on their surface get absorbed by the paper.
- Now place all the dried peas on the soil surface in the pot and cover it with the same soil until a single pea is uncovered.
- Now again shower 4-5 times the soil top using the shower and wait to let it grow. Seeds under the soil will start germinating within 3-4 days but bright-colored pea shoots will come out of the ground in just a week.
- As this is a fast-growing plant, it will become mature enough to eat within 3-4 weeks. Keep in mind don’t let the soil dry, shower 3-4 triggers every day, also make sure the plant faces the sunlight at the place you are placing it.
- Now they are ready to eat, and you can consume them as you want, you can have them on your salad plate, and you can cook delicious recipes in many styles. If you don’t like to work to prepare a proper meal of them, you can simply pluck shoots, wash, and eat them without adding any spice or anything else.
Preservation
Pea greens are soft shoots that require extra safety in handling, most important, they start spoiling quickly after their removal from the plant body.
They should not be frozen and should be consumed after only one or two days of the harvest action. If you really want to freeze them for up to a month, try to pack them in a polythene air-evacuated bag with a closed top in the freezer.
Conclusion
Pea shoots nutritional content is obliging in maintaining one’s health and strengthening the immune system with a wide range of vitamins and minerals. They shouldn’t be ignored in meals as they are a part of not a super but near a superfood.
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