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Peas are an amazing ingredient and rather than a vegetable, they are actually seeds. They come in all shapes and sizes including the classic earthy and nutty garden pea, the umami-filled marrowfat pea, and sweet and crunchy sugar snap peas.

But sometimes you might be left wondering about what to do with your leftover peas, some that need using up or just something a little different than serving them as a side dish. While peas are wonderful as a side dish some of the better and more creative uses for them might be as:

Flavor-bursting ingredient

Healthy soup

Delicious spread

Using peas as an ingredient inside a whole dish can add a wonderful texture to a recipe while blending them up as a soup with fresh stock can give you a healthy vitamin burst. An uncommon use might be as a spread on your favorite toast or cracker.

Adds a Special Touch

There are many amazing dishes out there that incorporate peas into their recipes since the humble pea has a perennial growth in most countries. The beautiful seeds inside elegant pods come in a wide array of varieties and taste very different from each other.

The most common type of pea is the well-known garden pea, famous for its bright green color and small size that makes it perfect as an ingredient in many dishes that are easy to create including a Pakistani keema, Italian Pasta e Piselli or you could try making peas pulao from India.

As well as the green peas, however, other peas such as sugar snap peas are amazing in Pan-Asian dishes such as Japanese Teriyaki beef, Chinese Sweet and Sour Pork, or Korean Bibimbap. The natural glucose of the sugar snap pea, which is best eaten whole as a pod, caramelizes in a hot pan, making it perfect for wok or korahi cooking.

Contributes to the Five-a-Day

Of course, peas are an excellent product for making soup, made famous by a certain horror movie from the 1970s. However, a freshly made pan of pea soup won’t look anywhere near as unappetizing and will not only taste delicious but pack a punch of vitamin and mineral goodness as well.

The green pea, for example, contains no fat and is high in vitamins A, B and bursting with C as well as providing iron. Green pea soup is delicious and when cooked as a soup and then blended or pureed, as long as it’s not overcooked, has a delicate yet rich nutty flavor that can be accentuated with butter, garlic, and its classic friend, ham with a mint garnish.

Other peas exist of course and a hearty stew with split peas is a staple dish of Eastern European countries. Ukrainian split pea soup, and variations of it, make the most of green and yellow peas slow cooked with a variety of vegetables such as carrots, onions, and potatoes with added herbs and meats to feed the family and can make small cuts of meats go further. 

Is as Versatile as it is Delicious

A pea spread might sound strange, but the textures of most peas actually lend themselves really well as a spread. Britain’s famous mushy peas, which is the main accompaniment to the nation’s traditional Fish and Chips is essentially a spread when made properly. 

Made from marrowfat peas, mushy peas can be cooked down until most of the moisture has been removed and then combined with lemon juice, dill, and parsley for a delicious spread on toasted bread, maybe with some smoked haddock flakes on top.Or for a twist on an Italian classic, why not try adding a warm pea puree to a fresh batch of pesto which can then be served with hot crusty bread or dipped with warm and crunchy grissini. Just be sure to drizzle over some good olive oil and shavings of parmesan.

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This is a contributed post