Complete Guide to Buying, Peeling, and Freezing Peas + Tips

How to Buy, Peel, and Freeze PeasPeas

As spring arrives, the market for seasonal vegetables likepeasandfava beansheats up, and housewives purchase these delicious and beneficial vegetables to store until winter, creating tasty dishes throughout the year and enjoying their benefits.

While eating these vegetables fresh maximizes their benefits, unfortunately, they are not available year-round. If you want to enjoy these vegetables in winter, you need to know how to store them.

Follow this section of tipshomecare SelMagzto learn how to buy, peel, and freeze peas so you can make dishes like pea patties,pastawith meat and peas, Chinese mixed rice with peas and chicken, green peaand cheddar salad, and more, and enjoy them.To buy peas, keep these tips in mind:

At the end of May or mid-June, you can buy peas from vegetable shops.

1. When buying, it’s best to choose large, fresh, and quality peas.
2. Pay attention to the pods when purchasing green peas and choose those with a bright green appearance, free of any yellowness or spots.
3. For freezing peas, use young peas.
4. Choose peas that are completely round and have a grassy green color.
5. Avoid buying spotted and moldy peas, even if they are cheaper.
6. If you buy pre-peeled peas, avoid sticky ones as they are old.
7. How to separate pea pods:

Separating the pea pods and the peas inside is easy, but if you don’t have enough time, add the washed peas to boiling water with their pods and after a few minutes, you’ll see them separate.

How to store peas for other seasons:

There are two methods for storing seasonal vegetables for other seasons:

Freezing

1. Canning
2. How to freeze peas:

First, buy young, high-quality peas with a dark green color.

1. Peel the peas and separate them.
2. Pour some water into a pot and bring it to a boil.
3. Once the water boils, add the separated peas to it.
4. The amount of peas should not stop the boiling of the water.
5. After boiling for one minute, drain the peas.
6. Then pour cold water over the peas or place them in a cold air stream.
7. Packing the peas:

After cooling the boiled peas, you should pack them. Use freezer bags or ziplock bags for packing. Place the necessary amount of peas for each meal into each bag, remove the air inside the bag, and store them in the freezer.

What to do to keep the peas green?

Some women rinse the peas after podding and pack them up, but this can affect their color. To keep the peas green, you should know how to blanch them.

Blanching vegetables means partially cooking them to prepare for final cooking. This prevents the peas from becoming tough and helps maintain their green color.

For tasty and colorful peas:

First, bring water to a boil, add the peas, let them cook for a bit, then drain them.

After boiling, prepare a container of cold water, and add ice cubes, then immediately plunge the peas into the cold water. This temperature shock deactivates the enzymes in the vegetables that cause spoilage and preserves the color, flavor, and nutrients during freezing.

To enhance flavor while boiling peas, you can also add some salt.

Do not cover the pot while boiling, as this can darken their color.

In response to your questions from the homecare section of SelMagz titled “Preventing Peas from Wrinkling,” we should say that to prevent wrinkling, add a bit of lemon juice while boiling them.

Storage duration of peas in home freezers:

You can keep peas in the freezer for 8-12 months at a temperature of minus 18 degrees Celsius.

How to can peas

After purchasing quality peas, separate them from their pods and wash them.

1. Then, place the peas into a wide-mouthed jar like a sauce or paste jar.
2. Sprinkle some salt inside the jar.
3. Boil water, cool it, and pour it over the peas, then close the jar.
4. In a large pot, pour water, place the jars inside, and let them boil for one hour over medium heat.
5. After one hour, turn off the heat, place the jars in cold water, and store them in the refrigerator.
6. With this method, you can have peas all year round.
7. Freezing or canning, which is better?

Freezing is preferred over canning because:

By freezing peas, you can use them for a long time.

• Whenever you take peas out of the freezer, they remain fresh and natural.
• The nutrients and beneficial properties of peas are better preserved when frozen compared to canning.
• You do not need any special tools for freezing.
• Storing Peas