Pea Tendrils

A discussion of eating pea tendrils came up on the "beans are easy, peas are stupid" thread, so I'm starting a new topic here on eating pea tendrils.

Our daughter in Austin got some one year in her CSA box while I was visiting, and we didn't know what to do with them. We went to the 'net and discovered they are a new food trend. Some people eat them raw in salads but my favorite way is to heat a little butter in a skillet and throw in a handful of pea tendrils and stir them just until they are wilted. Sprinkle with a little salt if desired, and eat. I also throw them into stir-fries just before removing from the heat. It takes very little heat to cook them. I think they have a wonderful flavor.

Martha mentioned her husband uses them at his restaurant as garnishes and in salads.

For any like me who didn't know, pea tendrils are the curly ends of English pea stems which grip things to climb on. I snip enough tendril to get two or three pea leaves on each one.

Does anyone else use them?

as soon as some extras show themselves, you betcha!

What do you do with yours, Camprn?

ander217 wrote:We went to the 'net and discovered they are a new food trend.

I guess that's why I've never heard of eating them?! We were the last ones on the block to get a color TV, an answering machine, and a cell phone. Wouldn't want to waste money on a fad!!!

So how many can you snip off a plant without hurting it's growth?

Well, I have never eaten them... I will have too see what I can do with them, but my peas are only a nit more than an inch tall just now.

I really don't know how many could be snipped without hurting the plant, but I try not to snip more than one or two from each plant. We consider them a delicacy and use them sparingly. (If I had an abundance of them, I'd probably think there was nothing special about them.)

Boffer, we must be from the same parallel universe. We're usually the last folks to sport a new trend, but our daughter has a more modern outlook and has a subscription to the local CSA in Austin. Tendrils were included in her box of produce and we certainly didn't want to waste them, so we found out what to do with them. We were pleasantly surprised at how good they taste, and "The Snipping of the Pea Tendrils" is now one of the things I look forward to each year in the early garden.