Stephanie here…
Our first CSA harvest included a batch of pea shoots. I’d never had them before so I had to look up a few recipes to get in the swing of things with these pretty little pea vines. They are just young pea vines that are harvested for the green vine itself, before the peas set on. They have a lovely sweet pea flavor with the benefits of greens!
What’s so great about pea shoots? Well…
Pea Shoots are a nutritious leaf with high levels of vitamin C and vitamin A. A 50g bag of these tasty greens offers more than half of the RDA for vitamin C, a quarter of the RDA for vitamin A and significant amounts of folic acid. Source
After reading a number of recipes for these little lovelies, I went with the idea of a pesto, but made my own sort, since we don’t eat parmesan.
Pea Shoot and Walnut Pesto
- 1/2 cup olive oil
- 1 cup walnuts
- about 3 lightly packed cups of pea shoots
- big sprig of parsley
- juice of a lemon (and might as well throw the zest in there too)
- salt and pepper to taste
Place all in a food processor and pulse until smooth. EAT.
I made up this pesto and then thinned it with my favorite apple cider vinegar and a bit of stevia for a lovely pea shoot and walnut pesto vinaigrette for our salad today. MMM mmm, pick up some of these natural treats and make something exciting with them.
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