Peas Purée

Peas Purée

My first attempt to make peas piure dates a couple of years ago. I tried to make it using only jarred peas and it came out horrendous! The color and taste were awful. But after some research, I turned my attention to frozen peas. Their color and taste it's best preserved under this method. I added some baked potatoes to get a thicker consistency and it became my favorite dish to eat while I was pregnant with my son. It's no wonder he loves to eat it as well these days and he’s only one year old.

Ingredients:

- 550 gr. of potatoes

- 450 gr. of good quality frozen peas

- 60 gr. of butter

- 100 ml of milk

- salt or dried vegetable stock

- 1-2 tbsp. of sugar

- 500 ml. of water

- 2 cubes of dried vegetable stock

Equipment:

- food processor

Note that I've only made this recipe using a food processor an not a different kitchen appliance. Therefore I cannot guarantee the same consistency of the piure if for example you were to use a hand blender.

Method:

Preheat the oven to 200 degrees Celsius.

Peal the potatoes, rinse them and slice them into cubes. Place them onto a tray lined with parchment paper, drizzle a little bit of olive oil and sprinkle the tiniest pinch of salt onto them and transfer the tray into the preheated oven for 25-30 minutes at 200 degrees Celsius, fan.

Once the potatoes are baked, let them cool. You can do this step one day in advance and keep the potatoes in the fridge in an air tight container. The reason why I use potatoes in the peas piure is because we need a little bit of their starchiness to hold the shape of the piure and give it some consistency. Otherwise, if we'd just blend the peas with all that liquid, it would turn into a soup. Also it's important to use baked potatoes and not boiled potatoes as these are more watery and will once again impact the consistency of the piure.

It's true that this piure is more runny than an actual potato piure, but it doesn't mean it's not absolutely delicious.

Next we will bring to a boil 500 ml of water in a pot and then add a cube of dried vegetable stock. We'll simmer everything for 2 more minutes and remove it off the heat. We will use this stock when we'll process the piure.

Now we will take 450 gr. of frozen peas (no need to defrost it) and place them into a separate pot with boiling water. We'll boil everything for 12-15 minutes until the peas are very tender - to check you can poke them with a very sharp knife. To season the water you could either use some salt or one cube of dried vegetable stock.

Once the peas are cooked, drain them, crush them while they're still steamy hot with a piure masher and place them back in the pot, covered with a lid so that they don't dry out. This way they will cool in a steamed environment and will not loose their moisture. Try to use them right away, and make sure they don't completely cool off.

Time to use our food processor to get a smooth piure. You don't need to have a fancy food processor. Mine is super old. I've had it since 2014 and it has a power of 650 watts (and if you are wondering what brand it is, it's Philips - with no intention to promote it).

Add all of the baked potatoes and the boiled peas in the food processor and blend everything together for about a minute. Then add 250 ml of the stock to start with, blend for a couple of seconds, then add 20 gr of butter, 35 ml of milk and another 40 ml of stock. Incorporate these 3 ingredients. There's no need to blend it for too long, just enough to dissolve the butter and incorporate the milk.

Now we'll add the rest of the ingredient in 2 more steps. So another 20 gr of butter, 35 ml of milk and 40 ml of stock and one tablespoon of sugar*. Blend to incorporate them and then add the rest of the 20 gr of butter, 30 ml of milk and 40 ml of soup and blend once again.

If at any point the consistency looks to runny, add less of the wet ingredients.

Now let's taste the piure, to adjust the seasoning. *To bring out the sweetness of the peas I usually add 1-2 tablespoons of sugar (as mentioned earlier). You can leave this ingredient out if you don't like it or if you want to serve it to your children. But it will help give this dish a delicious flavor. All peas are different, some are sweeter and some might be bland. So the seasoning can be adjusted only by tasting the piure. Instead of salt, I like to add a pinch dried vegetable stock, but this is optional.

Note:

Out of the 500 ml of stock, you can see that I have only used 370 ml in the actual recipe.

Another important tip to a tasty piure is to always use good quality frozen peas and never use canned or jarred peas. The color and taste will not be the same.