Freezing Green Peas / Best Frozen Peas / How to Freeze Green Peas At Home / Homemade Frozen Green Peas

Freezing Green Peas / Best Frozen Peas / How to Freeze Green Peas At Home / Homemade Frozen Green Peas

Hey friends, I was so busy the whole of last month since Christmas. The visit of my in laws, the festive season of Pongal and my man's birthday 🎂 kept me away from updating this blog. But I am back with more energy, enthusiasm and of course interesting recipes.
Today's recipe is very useful to make our lives easy and hassle free. This is the recipe to prepare homemade frozen green peas. Everybody loves green peas but we all know that they are seasonal. Using this method we can store green peas for almost a year and enjoy this seasonal veggie for the whole of the year. Though frozen peas are easily available in the market, I prefer to make them at home for three main reasons. Firstly, I have the option to choose the best green peas and remove any rotten ones. Secondly, they are more economical when compared to the store bought ones. Lastly, they are more hygienic when prepared at home.

To get perfect frozen peas, you need to select the fresh ones which are neither under ripe nor over ripe. The under ripe peas are the ones which are small in size and are very tender. The over ripe peas are fuller and are lighter in colour when compared with the just ripe green peas. The over ripe peas are bitter in taste while the just ripe peas are sweet in taste and soft on cooking. Here in this recipe, we are going to blanch the green peas and freeze them for a long time. Blanching is very important to freeze the peas, else they will ripe even in cold temperatures. Blanching the peas will stop them from ripening and retaining their sweet taste for a long time to come. 

I had this recipe in my drafts folder since last year, but unfortunately I could not get fresh green peas. So this year, I made it a point to get to the local market which is called Santha that is held every Sunday near my place. I indeed was lucky 🍀 enough to lay my hands on the best green peas that were fresh from the farm. Now straight to the recipe.

Preparation

Separate the green peas from their pods. This task might eat your time, but its worth the effort. You can do this while watching any of your favourite TV 📺 show to save your time. Wash the peas and keep them aside. Put a container of water on full flame and bring it to a boil.

Add the washed peas when the water is boiling. Continue to cook on high flame until the water starts to boil again.

When the water starts to boil again, set the timer to 1 1/2 minutes ( 90 seconds ). Once the timer stops switch off the flame immediately. 

By this time, all the peas would be floating on the water.

Now quickly strain the water from the peas using a colander and put it under running cold water until the peas come to room temperature. 

You can also pour some ice cubes or ice cold water in the green peas to stop the cooking process. Once they are cooled, dry them on a clean kitchen cloth or a cotton cloth ...

......until there is no moisture left on the peas.

Now, you can pack them in zipper bags or freezer safe containers and store them in your freezer shelf.

Use them when necessary. Just thaw them before using or keep the required amount of peas at room temperature for half an hour before using in your preparation. I follow the second method. 

Ingredients

Green peas 1 kg
Water  1 1/2 litres

Method

1. Discard the pods from the seeds and wash the peas and keep aside.
2. Bring a big bowl of water to a boil on a high flame.
3. Add the peas when the water is boiling and cook on a high flame until it starts boiling again.
4. Set the timer to 1 1/2 minutes and switch it on the moment the water starts boiling again.
5. Switch off the flame as soon as the timer is stopped and drain the water using a colander.
6. Add some ice cold water or ice cubes or put it under cold running water to stop the cooking process.
7. When the peas are cooled, dry them on a clean kitchen cloth until there is no moisture left on them.
8. Transfer these dried blanched peas to zipper bags or freezer safe containers and freeze them until use.
9. These frozen peas stay good for months to come.

Notes

• Make sure that you are using a wide and big bowl for blanching the peas. There should be enough space for the peas to cook else they will not get cooked properly.
• The process of cooking should be stopped as soon as possible after the timer has ran out, otherwise the peas cook further because of the warmth and will become mushy for later use.
• You can also label these packs of frozen peas with their respective dates of preparation for future reference.
• Do not cook for more than the given time i.e. 1 1/2 minutes ( 90 seconds ).
• Whenever you want to use them, just keep the required quantity of frozen peas at room temperature for half an hour and then your peas are ready to be used in any recipe.
• You need not cook these frozen peas for a long time in any recipe. Just add them at the end of the recipe i.e. just 5-10 minutes before switching off the flame and you will be done.