Everything You Want To Know About The Three Types Of Peas
There are basically three different types of peas, being green or garden peas, snow peas and snap peas. For most people, when they think about peas they think that they love them as an adult but hated them as a child and often remember playing with them on their plate or throwing them at the dog.
Garden Peas
These types of peas are easily recognized by the spherical seed pod that homes several peas. Botanically, they are a fruit; however they are treated as a vegetable for cooking purposes. In earlier times, these peas were grown primarily for their dry seeds but today they are usually steamed or boiled which breaks the cell walls down and makes them sweeter.
During the Middle Ages, these types of peas were a very important staple found in the diet of European dwellers. In the 1700s they became popular to eat while they were still green and immature. The English then developed new cultivators during this time that were soon called English peas. Garden peas became very popular in the United States and Thomas Jefferson grew over 30 varieties in his garden to share with his guests.
Garden peas are usually eaten boiled and then flavored with butter, oil, spearmint or a number of other toppings. They are used in salads, soups, or served alone by themselves as a side dish.
Snow Peas
Over 12,000 years ago, along the border of Thailand and Burma, these types of peas were discovered. Technically they are legumes and the entire pod is eaten while still unripe.
Their name comes from the fact that they grow at the very end of winter before the very last spring freeze and are very happy to continue growing covered in snow.
Similar to all legumes, these types of peas host a bacteria called rhizobia that is very beneficial and actually fixes nitrogen in the soil. Therefore it is a wonderful companion plant to grow inter-cropped with leafy, green vegetables that love a soil that is high in nitrogen.
Snow peas are very popular to serve as a side dish of vegetables alone or are used in Chinese cooking and stir-fried with shellfish and garlic.
Snap Peas
Snap peas, also called sugar snap peas, are like the garden types of peas and are technically a pod fruit. Their pod is similar to a garden pea pod except that they are edible while they are young. They do not open while they are ripe and at maturity they generally house three to five peas in each pod.
These are commonly climbing plants so a support system such as a trellis is used to achieve maximum growth. Some cultivators of these types of peas have the ability to grow up to two meters high. They are a cool season vegetable and can be planted very early in the spring once the ground is thaw as they are very tolerant of frost at a young age.
Snap peas are extremely nutritious and filling and much lower in fats and carbohydrates than the other two types of peas. The pod itself offers mostly vitamins and water to the person eating it. The soft and tender pods are generally succulent and sweet and are served commonly in salads or simply eaten alone. They may also be steamed or stir-fried. If a snap pea is a bit more mature, it will need to be stringed. To perform this, you simply remove the membranous string that runs along the side of the pod. If you overcook these types of peas they will fall apart so to avoid this result, a light steam is the best preparation. Snap peas can never be canned because they cannot withstand the heat process but they do quite well stored frozen.