This pea puree recipe is incredible simple – how? There’s only one ingredient, frozen peas.
Fresh peas are a fantastic ingredient, incredible sweet and fresh, they’re hard to beat. However, fresh peas loose their flavour very quickly and are incredibly time consuming to shell them from the pods. They are worth the effort if you get them ultra fresh from a local producer in season but if not, one of the most amazing ingredients to replace fresh peas that you can use are frozen peas.
The best pea puree recipe
The most incredible thing about this recipe is that it’s actually a no-cook recipe. You will only need to heat through this purée up when serving up. The downside is that you do need to be a little patient – the key here is to have your peas semi-defrosted. If you try and blend them immediately after coming out of the freezer, you will overheat your blender’s motor.
Why does the recipe work?
Since we’re not cooking the peas, we’re not losing any of the amazing natural colour and flavour from the peas. The use of a high-power blender will purée the peas whilst continuing to defrost via heat generation from friction. After 5-10 minutes of blending, you’ll end up with almost a kind of pea sorbet.
Once you’ve reached this stage it’s already smooth enough but if you want to achieve a restaurant quality purée then go ahead and pass it through a very fine sieve.
Note: you can use an immersion blender for this recipe if you use small amounts of peas.
What you’ll need
500g of frozen peas
Equipment required
High-powered blender or immersion blender.
Recipe
- Allow your peas to defrost at room temperature until semi-defrosted. The time for this to take will depend on numerous factors. You could leave them in the fridge overnight to defrost.
- Once partly defrosted, but the peas into a blender and turn on to the lowest setting. You may need to scrape down the sides to ensure all the peas are blended.
- Gradually turn up the powder until all the peas are incorporated. Leave on the highest power setting once you’ve achieved a mixing vortex and blend until you’re happy the peas have been sufficiently puréed.
- For even smoother results, pass the purée through a fine sieve.
- Once ready to serve, heat through on a low heat stirring frequently and season to taste.
What kind of frozen peas should I use?
It won’t matter too much but it’s best to use either petit-pois or garden peas.
What does it go with?
This is a perfect pea puree recipe to go with scallops, fish and chips (see my recipe for the ultimate fish and chips here) or even lamb.
Can I add garlic?
Yes you can add garlic to add a different flavour to the purée – this would work particularly well when making it go with lamb.
What can you add to it?
Feel free to add whatever you want – I’d avoid adding too much oil or butter when warming it through as it will make the purée heavy which is not the aim.
You can of course add whatever herbs (mint, parsley, chives) you want during the blending process, note however that these will be removed when passing through a sieve. You could add mint jelly however, in my opinion, would defeat the purpose of creating a pure pea purée.
Can you make this recipe in advance?
Yes, as the purée isn’t cooked until you serve it up, it will last in the fridge, covered, up for up to 3 days. You may notice a degradation in the colour, however.
Can you freeze this purée?
Absolutely! You will just be effectively re-freezing the peas after they have been puréed. For best results, put the purée into a zip-lock, freezer bag and press down so it’s flat as possible. By doing this you will also push the air out, preventing freezer burn. Once ready to defrost, simply put the bag into some luke-warm water to defrost then pour the purée into a bad to warm through.
Can you add cream?
Yes you can make a pea puree with cream – it will make the colour less vibrant however. It’s also worth mentioning that frozen peas are so sweet naturally that adding cream is almost redundant.
Can I make this without a blender?
It will be pretty much impossible to make this recipe without a blender. You can of course do it with an immersion blender with a narrow pitcher however it may take more time.
Pea purée from canned peas
Can you? Yes of course, it just won’t be the same at all. The canning process involves raising the temperature to incredibly high temperatures, pasteurising the contents which is great for longevity but not for taste or appearance. The volatile flavour compounds are destroyed and the end result is, rather grey. No problem for mushy peas for a rustic fish and chips but perhaps not fantastic for a more refined dish.
Pea puree for babies
This is a perfect puree to give to babies – a powerful blender completely blitzes the fibrous elements of the peas allowing easy digestion.
Since you are preparing the peas in their natural form and there is no heat input, there will be no degradation to volatile, unstable nutrients such as vitamin C, B or thiamine. Since you’re barely warming the purée up after, it will retain all of the health benefits making this an excellent meal to feed to babies.
It’s worth adding that many studies have pointed that blending fruit and vegetables do not lead to nutritional loss compared to the raw version. That is, of course, if you don’t blend them enough so the temperature rises above 40-50c!s
