One can talk about the benefits of peas for hours. In Russia, he was one of the key foods: they cooked soup, porridge, kissels, made noodles, and baked pies. The variety of food using peas was huge. Today, the popularity of the brightest representative of legumes has fallen somewhat. Peas are mainly purchased in canned form for cooking salads.
Of course, it is useful, but it will not be able to replace dishes from fresh (dry) peas. They are the most valuable source of protein, and even to some extent able to replace meat, which is especially important for vegetarians. Moreover, the components included in green peas help to restore the digestive tract, relieve constipation, heartburn and other unpleasant problems associated with digestion.
Pea Porridge - General Principles and Methods of Cooking
“Sorrel soup and porridge are our food”, and the pea porridge is so good! And if it is still seasoned and mixed with overdone onions, it will not be priced. Cooked by all the rules pea porridge is very tasty, healthy and satisfying. But how to cook it? What culinary secrets need to master? We will try to answer these important questions.
Before you start cooking porridge, peas should be washed and soaked in cold water for 5-8 hours. So it will boil faster and provide the dish with a soft, puree-like consistency. When the pea swells, it is put on the stove (along with the water), brought to a boil and only then salted, not forgetting to reduce the “heat” of the hotplate.
Pea cooked on low heat for an hour with proper stirring, as the peas very quickly stick to the bottom of the dish. A few minutes before cooking, porridge is enriched with spices, greens, toasted onions, carrots, bacon and other ingredients as desired. At the very end of cooking, the peas can be tolkus tolkushkoy - the one that is usually used for cooking mashed potatoes. Before serving, pea porridge is seasoned with butter or heavy cream.
Pea Porridge - Food Preparation
In the production of cereals, peas are usually left whole or “prick” into two parts. Split grits cooked much faster than whole grains, even after swelling, but unshelled peas contain several more beneficial elements, most of which “perish” as a result of additional heat treatment. Based on this, it does not matter at all what kind of variety you choose: whole or crushed. On the dry peas of poor quality in the store is almost impossible to run into. The only thing worth paying attention to is the absence of debris and additional impurities in the pea groats.
An important role for the successful preparation of peas is played by properly selected dishes. It should have a thick bottom and walls for even cooking of peas.
Pea Porridge - The Best Recipes
Recipe 1: Pea Porridge with Meat
The pea porridge prepared according to this recipe is sure to become a frequent guest on your tables. The peas themselves are very nourishing, but if they are cooked with meat, you will get just a royal dish. Albeit not quite festive, but very juicy and beautiful in appearance.
Ingredients:
- two glasses of dry half peas
- four to five glasses of water (or broth)
- onion
- ground pepper
- Pork fillet 300 gr.
- salt (spices) to taste
Method of preparation:
1. Wash peas and pour cold running water, preferably overnight. In the morning we wash it a second time, drain the water, add it clean at the rate of 1: 2. You can add pork broth. Put the saucepan on a medium heat until boiling, then reduce the heat, add some salt to the porridge.
2. Cook until the peas are boiling and the liquid is evaporated. If it evaporates ahead of time, add a little more until the peas are completely boiled soft and stop crunching.
3. Next, we crush the peas, the mashed potatoes set aside. Take the rest of the ingredients. Wash and slice the pork, peel and chop the onion. 4. We heat the frying pan with vegetable oil and fry the onions to a lacquer shade, and then lay out the pork, cover with the lid and simmer the meat until done. Salt to taste, if necessary, add spices and spices.
5. Add the cooked frying to the pea porridge, send it to the preheated oven for ten minutes. Then we get and serve with butter.
Recipe 2: Pea Porridge with Smoked Chicken
Peas are ideally varied with smoked flavor. Many do not even know about this feature. The combination of pea porridge with smoked meat is a magnificent thing that is endowed with delicious aroma and generous taste. Alternatively, you can use any smoked meat, such as pork ribs. But in this case, the cooking time of pea porridge will increase slightly. Attention! Salt dish at the very end. Smoked products themselves have a salty taste, so there is a chance to over-salt the porridge.
Ingredients:
- one and a half glasses of peas
- two large onions
- one medium carrot
- two medium smoked chicken legs
- vegetable oil
- greens, salt to taste
Method of preparation:
1. Soak peas for the night, then we merge water, we wash it. Smoked chicken legs are separated from bones, skin and too fatty parts. Fill the meat with water (500 ml), bring and boil and cook for ten minutes (ribs - up to 40 minutes).
2. Remove the meat from the broth and pour them peas in such a way that the liquid covered the peas with two fingers. We bring to a boil, reduce the heat and boil the peas for about an hour and a half under the lid, stirring occasionally. If the broth boils ahead of time, add additional water. The main thing is that the peas are well boiled soft.
3. While the porridge boils soft, fry the onion with grated carrots. When the components are roasted, add boiled smoked meat and fry over high heat for a few minutes. Five to ten minutes before the pea porridge is ready, we put the roast, shredded greens into it, and add it to the taste. Then turn off the stove and let stand the dish under the lid.
Recipe 3: Pumpkin-Pea Porridge with Mushrooms
Another successful option for cooking pea porridge in a pumpkin, which will play the role of a pot for a dish. It is best to boil the peas in the meat broth, so boil it in advance. Let's get started!
Ingredients:
- 250 ml of broth
- one medium pumpkin
- 100 gr. dry pea
- mushrooms (white, champignons) - 100 gr.
- garlic clove
- greenery
- to taste spices
- onion
- butter 50 gr.
Method of preparation:
1. Boil the swollen and washed peas in salted meat broth until it is fully boiled. We will shake it with tolkushka to a puree-like state and for the time being remove it to the side.
2. From the pumpkin, cut off the top “lid”, remove the seeds, fibers and part of the pulp with a spoon, leaving walls two centimeters thick.
3. Fry the onion finely chopped, add the mushrooms washed and sliced into the plates, and pass until ready. For a couple of minutes, lay out the garlic and greens, crushed with the help of a garlic press.
4. Mix the pea puree with the cooked ingredients, put it into the pumpkin cavity, put the butter on top, close with the pumpkin lid and send it to the oven heated to 180 ° C for fifteen to twenty minutes. We take out and laid out on deep plates. Enjoy your meal!
Pea Porridge - Useful Tips
- Many cooks claim that pea porridge is surprisingly tasty with cream. But if you are a supporter of a healthy lifestyle, it is better not to be tempted by this combination and choose sunflower or olive oil for dressing;
- If you have a catastrophic lack of time for soaking peas, use one secret: put the cereal in water diluted with soda (about half a teaspoon), and in an hour it can be boiled. Do not forget to pre-rinse peas well to eliminate the smell of soda.
