Perfect Pea Purée

This restaurant quality pea purée recipe is extremely easy, quick and flavorful. Peas, lemon and salt are blended with some olive oil for a simple, refreshing spread! Put this on toast, serve as a dip or just smear it on a plate as a garnish. You will love this refreshing summer dish! (Also doesn't hurt that it's healthy, am I right!?)

Print Recipe

Total Time 15

Course Appetizer, Sauce, Side Dish

Cuisine American, Gluten-Free, Healthy

Servings cups

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!

Video

Notes

If you don't love lemon, feel free to boil the peas with garlic and onion, then blend all of it up together. Skip the lemon juice and zest in the purée and follow all of the other steps.

If you don't have a blender, a food processor works fine! Personal blenders are also welcome.

For toppings, go wild with whatever YOU want! I provided some options here and kept it simple. If you skip the cheese for topping, this recipe is vegan.

Keyword frozen peas, lemon juice, lemon zest, olive oil, pepper, salt

Tried this recipe?Let us know how it was!