Perfect Pea Purée
Ah, good old purée! If you read the word *~purée*~ and think of high end restaurants serving plates with tiny bites of food and colorful purées delicately smeared on them, please get that image out of your head. Yes, high end restaurants incorporate purées on their menus very frequently as a type of artistic plate garnish. But, that doesn’t mean their only purpose is edible artwork!
Unless I’m cooking for a special occasion or a group (not really happening right now) I really don’t care *that* much about plating. Yes, I want the food to look great and I try to make it look great. BUT, I’m not going to whip out the blender and make a purée just to squiggle it on a plate and not touch it, ok!?!? If I’m making one at home, it’s because I want and crave the taste of the ingredients. Hummus is a thick, creamy purée and I make that all the time! This pea purée falls close behind that as a highly requested dip or spread in our house. And considering it’s summer and peas are all the rage, I thought it was the perfect time to drop this recipe so you can switch up your dip/spread game with some seasonal ingredients. I filmed a YouTube episode to show you how to make this recipe from start to finish, so check it out below!
Perfect Pea Purée
Equipment
- Blender or food processor
- Mesh strainer (optional, but preferred)
Ingredients
Pea Purée
- 2 1/2 cups frozen peas 1 bag of frozen peas is fine, usually has around this amount!
- 2 tbsp lemon juice if you're iffy about lemons, save this until the end
- Zest of 1 lemon skip if you don't like lemon, the zest has more of that lemony aroma
- 1/2 tsp salt plus more to taste if needed
- 1/4 cup olive oil
Topping options (optional, only necessary if serving this as a dip! – I served with parmesan, pepper, olive oil, parsley and more peas)
- Parmesan freshly grated
- Freshly cracked black pepper
- Fresh parsley
- Fresh mint
- Lemon zest for my lemon lovers out there
- Sea salt only if you're skipping the parm
- Ricotta
- Feta
- Sliced or minced hallots
- Nutritional yeast for my vegans who want a "cheesiness"
- Toasted cashews or pistachios
Instructions
- Bring a pot of water to a boil and season with 1 tsp of salt. You can also add 1 tsp of sugar if you want to bring out the sweetness in the pea. I didn't do that, but it is an option!
- Once the water is boiling, add all of the frozen peas and boil for 1-2 minutes, until they are bright green and tender. We do not want to over cook the peas and have them turn olive green!
- After the 1-2 minute mark, remove them from the boiling water and put them into a bowl of cold water. Run some more cold water over the bowl, while mixing the peas. The motion helps the heat disperse more quickly so that they stop cooking. If you don't feel like doing this, you can also put the newly cooked peas into an ice bath!
- Once the peas are no longer hot, remove 1/2 cup and reserve it for topping (if serving this as a dip.) If you are serving this as a spread and don't want to garnish, skip this step.
- Pour all of the peas into a blender. Add the lemon juice, lemon zest, salt and olive oil. Blend (and use purée function if you have it) until smooth (1-2 minutes.) Taste to make sure the levels of flavor are to your liking, and if not, adjust accordingly. If you want more salt, add more salt. If you started off lightly on the lemon and want more lemon, this is your time to add more! Feel free to also add raw garlic if that's what your palate wants!
- Put the mesh strainer over a bowl and fill it halfway with pea purée. Use the back of a spoon to smear the purée onto the strainer to filter out the grainy, clumpy bits that weren't blended. What comes out on the other side is your newly super smooth pea purée!
- Continue to strain until you've smoothed out all of the purée. Feel free to eat the leftover clumpy parts, or put them in a bag to use for a pea soup! You could also put them back in the blender to purée.
- If serving as a dip, pour the purée into a bowl or onto a platter. Create a divot in theh middle and place some peas on top. Top with toppings of your choice. I added olive oil, fresh black pepper, Parmesan and parsley.
- If making ahead, store in an air-tight container for up to 3 days! Enjoy!
Like!! Thank you for publishing this awesome article.
I like the valuable information you provide in your articles.
These are actually great ideas in concerning blogging.
I am regular visitor, how are you everybody? This article posted at this web site is in fact pleasant.
These are actually great ideas in concerning blogging.
It’s an amazing post in support of all the online viewers; they will
obtain benefit from it I am sure.
Admiring the time and effort you put into your website and
detailed information you offer. It’s good to come across
a blog every once in a while that isn’t the same unwanted rehashed information. Great read!
I’ve bookmarked your site and I’m including your RSS feeds to my Google account.
Hi there, i read your blog occasionally and i own a similar one and
i was just curious if you get a lot of spam comments?
If so how do you reduce it, any plugin or anything you can advise?
I get so much lately it’s driving me insane so
any assistance is very much appreciated.