You can talk about the benefits of peas for hours. In Russia, it was one of the key food products: soup, porridge, jelly were made from it, they made noodles and baked cakes. The variety of dishes using peas was huge. Today, the popularity of the brightest representative of legumes has somewhat fallen. Peas are mainly purchased in canned form for the preparation of salads.
It is, of course, useful, but it will not be able to replace dishes from fresh (dry) peas in any way. They are the most valuable source of protein and even to some extent are able to replace meat, which is especially important for vegetarians. Moreover, the components that make up green peas help restore the digestive tract, relieve constipation, heartburn and other unpleasant digestion problems.
Pea porridge - general principles and methods of preparation
"Cabbage soup and porridge - our food", and pea porridge as good! And if you still season it and mix it with the refried onion, then there will be no price for it. Pea porridge cooked in accordance with all the rules is very tasty, healthy and satisfying. But how to cook it? What culinary secrets do you need to master? We will try to answer these important questions.
Before starting to cook porridge, peas should be washed and pre-soaked in cold water for 5-8 hours. So it will break apart faster and provide the dish a soft puree-like consistency. When the peas swell, they put it on the stove (along with water), bring to a boil and only after that they salt it, not forgetting to reduce the "ardor" of the burner.
The peas are cooked over low heat for an hour with proper stirring, since the peas very quickly burn to the bottom of the dishes. A few minutes before cooking, the porridge is enriched with spices, herbs, fried onions, carrots, cracklings and other ingredients as desired. At the very end of cooking, the maid can be crushed by a pusher - the one that is usually used for making mashed potatoes. Before serving, pea porridge is seasoned with butter or heavy cream.
Pea porridge - preparation of products
In the production of cereals, seed peas are usually left whole or chopped in two. Separated groats are cooked much faster than whole grains, even after swelling, but peeled peas contain several more useful elements, most of which “die” as a result of additional heat treatment. Based on this, it does not matter at all which kind of variety you choose: whole or chopped. It's almost impossible to run into poor quality dry peas in a store. The only thing worth paying attention to is the absence of garbage and additional impurities in pea groats.
An important role for the successful preparation of the peas is played by correctly selected dishes. It should have a thick bottom and walls for uniform digestion of peas.
Pea porridge - the best recipes
Recipe 1: Pea Porridge with Meat
Pea porridge prepared according to this recipe will certainly become a frequent guest at your tables. The peas themselves are very satisfying, but if you cook it with meat, you get just a royal dish. Let not quite festive, but very juicy and beautiful in appearance.
Ingredients:
- two glasses of dry half peas
- four to five glasses of water (or meat broth)
- onion
- ground pepper
- pork fillet 300 gr.
- salt (spices) to taste
Cooking method:
1. We wash the peas and fill them with cold running water, preferably at night. In the morning we rinse it a second time, drain the water, add clean at the rate of 1: 2. You can add pork broth. We put the pan on medium heat until it boils, then we reduce the heat, add the porridge.
2. Cook until boiling peas and evaporating the liquid. If it evaporates ahead of time, add a little more until the peas are completely broken apart and stop crunching.
3. Next, crush the maid with a pusher, put the mashed potatoes aside. Let's deal with the rest of the ingredients. We rinse and cut the pork with plastics, peel the onion, chop.
4. We fry a frying pan with vegetable oil and fry the onion to a lacquer shade, and then lay out the pork, cover and simmer the meat until tender. Salt to taste, add spices and spices if necessary.
5. Add the finished 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 perfectly vary with smoked flavor. Many do not even suspect such a feature. The combination of pea porridge with smoked meat is a magnificent something that is endowed with a delicious aroma and a generous taste. As an alternative, you can use any smoked meat, for example, pork ribs. But in this case, the cooking time of pea porridge will increase slightly. Attention! Dish the salt at the very end. Smoked meats themselves have a salty taste, so there is a chance to salt the porridge.
Ingredients:
- one and a half glasses of peas
- two large onions
- one medium carrot
- two medium smoked legs
- vegetable oil
- greens, salt to taste
Cooking method:
1. Soak the peas overnight, then drain the water, rinse it. Smoked legs are separated from bones, peels and too fat parts. Pour meat with water (500 ml), bring it to a boil and cook for ten minutes (ribs - up to 40 minutes).
2. Remove the meat from the broth and pour the peas in such a way that the liquid covers the peas with two fingers. Bring to a boil, reduce heat and simmer 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 cooked.
3. While the porridge is boiling, fry the onions with grated carrots. When the components are fried, add the boiled smoked meat and fry over high heat for several minutes. Five to ten minutes before the pea porridge is ready, put the frying, shredded greens in it and add it to taste. Then turn off the stove and let the dish stand under the lid.
Recipe 3: Pumpkin and Pea Porridge with Mushrooms
Another good option for cooking pea porridge in a pumpkin, which will play the role of a pot for the dish. It is best to boil peas in meat broth, so boil it in advance. Let's get started!
Ingredients:
- 250 ml of broth
- one medium pumpkin
- 100 gr. dry peas
- mushrooms (ceps, champignons) - 100 gr.
- clove of garlic
- greenery
- to taste spices
- onion
- butter 50 gr.
Cooking method:
1. Boil the swollen and washed peas in salted meat broth until it is completely boiled. Push it with a crush to a puree state and put it aside for now.
2. Cut the upper “cap” from the pumpkin, remove the seeds, fibers and part of the pulp with a spoon, leaving the walls two centimeters thick.
3. Fry chopped onions finely, add washed and sliced mushrooms to it and sauté until cooked. For a couple of minutes, spread the garlic and herbs chopped with a garlic press.
4. Mix the pea puree with the overcooked ingredients, put it in the pumpkin cavity, put the butter on top, close the pumpkin lid and put it in the oven heated to 180 C for fifteen to twenty minutes. We get it and lay it on deep plates. Bon appetit to all!
Pea porridge - useful tips
- Many chefs claim that pea porridge is amazingly delicious with cream. But if you are a supporter of a healthy lifestyle, it is better not to be tempted by such a combination and choose sunflower or olive oil for dressing;
- If you sorely lack time to soak peas, use one secret: put the cereal in water diluted with soda (about half a teaspoon), and after an hour it can be boiled. Do not forget to rinse the peas well beforehand to eliminate the smell of soda.
Comments
