Pea Shoots
Updated: Apr 21, 2021
These are the first sign of many more fresh ingredients to come from our farm. We love to eat these plain as snacks, incorporated into our favorite meals as a substitute for a green or a pea, and even in a pesto to add to all sorts of meals and to extend their shelf life once they are harvested. Here is a little collection of some favorite recipes with pea shoots.
Pea shoot pesto
Ingredients:
One or two bunches of pea shoots
4 stalks of wild spring garlic
4 stalks wild spring onion
(if not available 2 garlic cloves)
¼ cup olive oil - or long splash
Heavy pinch of salt
Dash of pepper
Juice from one small lemon
One cup of finely shredded Parmesan Cheese
Directions:
Add olive oil, shoots, garlic, and onion into the food processor.
Pulse until well blended but not overly processed.
Add the lemon, cheese, salt and pepper. Pulse again until well combined.
Taste and make micro-adjustments to your liking. This can be frozen for later use, spread on toast, tossed with pasta, used as a dip or used to coat roasted vegetables. Enjoy!
Wine Pairing Suggestion: Sauvignon Blanc, Unoaked Chardonnay, or a crisp white blend. I'll be pairing mine with the 2020 Scout and Cellar Dove Hunt Dog White Wine. It is 2/3 Chardonnay and 1/3 Sauvignon Blanc with spring like notes of lemon and apricot to complement the seasonal taste of the pea shoots and the wild garlic and onion.
Shredded pork, root veg slaw, and pea shoot bowl
We love to buy a big roast either pork or beef and slow cook it and shred it. We always buy bone-in because of the added depth of flavor and use the bones immediately after to start a bone broth. This way, you ensure multiple uses from your purchase. Always buy the best meat you can afford! In the instance of this meal, we bought a large pork shoulder roast from a farm about 10 miles down the road. We made about 4 different meals from the one cut of meat, as well as an amazing broth. I have to say, though, that this was my favorite meal of all four. Additionally, you could easily make this a vegetarian meal if you don’t eat meat.
Ingredients:
2 cups shredded pork
1 cup white rice
Handful of pea shoots
Root veg slaw:
1 Beets
2 Carrots
Lime
Olive oil or avocado oil
For the sauce:
1 garlic clove
2 Tbsp soy sauce
2 tsp toasted sesame oil
1 tsp fish sauce
1 Tbsp rice wine vinegar
Directions:
Roast pork, if you don’t have any shredded on hand. We always just pat it dry, salt generously, scour with a knife and insert garlic cloves, about 5-10, and add a bay leaf to the dutch oven. We cook it at 350 with the lid on for a few hours, checking periodically. When it is starting to fall apart, we help it out and let it fall into larger chunks. When it has cooked even further, we fully shred it with a fork. Finally, we let it cook just a bit longer after it's fully shredded to give it a “confit” effect. So yummy! We also cook beef this way if you have that instead.
Steam your rice. We use our instant pot for rice, you could use a stove top instead. The key to great rice is to rinse it, every time, no matter how you cook it! For the instant pot, rinse your rice, until the water runs clear through a fine mesh strainer. Then, add it to the instant pot with equal amounts of water. For this recipe, one cup of rice, and one cup of water. Then, put on the lid, pressure cook for 4 minutes at high pressure. For the stove top, one cup of rice to two cups of water, bring to a boil, then lower the heat and add the lid for 20 min. Turn off heat at 20 minutes and let sit with the lid on for 5 minutes.
Make the root vegetable slaw. I love this slaw! You can basically use any root vegetable you have but I particularly like the beets and carrots.
Peel the vegetables, and cut into quarters.
Shred the vegetables. I like to use the shredder on my food processor. I like the texture and consistency of the size. You could also use a mandolin if you have one and prefer that.
Add to a bowl.
Zest your lime, add all the zest to the bowl.
Then, add all of the lime juice from the same lime.
Add a long dash of oil, olive or avocado.
Salt and pepper to taste. Also, make any micro adjustments like more lime or oil after you toss it all together.
This keeps in the refrigerator really well, just let it return to room temperature before you eat it again.
Finally, make the sauce to drizzle on the top. Combine all of the ingredients into a small bowl and whisk together. Make any adjustments based on the taste by adding more of any ingredients. It’s more of an art than a science. If you like spicy food, a pinch of crushed red pepper flakes are delicious in here too!
Assemble your bowl! Big scoop of rice on the bottom, shredded meat to one side, slaw on the other side, and pea shoots tucked in to the top. Drizzle with some sauce and enjoy!
Wine Pairing Suggestion: For this asian inspired dish that mixes pork with tangy root vegetables and light pea shoots I suggest a Muscat Blanc or another fruity but light white wine. The balance of the floral and fruit notes will compliment the food and seasonings well. For a clean-crafted option. Check out this Scout and Cellar Dove Hunt Dog Muscat Blanc .
Pasta Carbonara with Pea Shoots
Ingredients:
3 Fresh eggs
Best bacon you can find
Spaghetti
Parmesan cheese
Spring garlic
Pea shoots
Directions:
Start boiling your water for pasta - I always forget to start this at the beginning and end up waiting for water to boil. You know the saying, a watched pot never boils, well it’s especially slow when you’re hungry! Use your largest pot for this, fill it up, put the lid on and turn it on your highest heat. When it starts to rapidly boil, add a heavy pinch of salt.
Fry bacon in a cast-iron skillet. Fry it on a low to medium heat so it cooks more evenly through and it stays somewhat flat. Keep an eye on it while getting everything else ready and flip when needed.
While the bacon is frying and your water is heating, crack your eggs into the bowl you’ll assemble your pasta in. I always just use the bowl I’m serving it in.
Whisk the eggs well until they have a nearly uniform consistency and color.
Add chopped garlic, and a generous heap of very finely shredded parmesan. I prefer the microplane for this.
Whisk all of this together until smooth again.
Remove bacon from pan and remove pan from heat, you’ll want to use your bacon grease in the pasta but it needs to cool some.
Add spaghetti to the boiling water and cook for about 10 minutes or whatever the package suggests.
When the spaghetti is fully cooked, DO NOT STRAIN! Use tongs to add it directly to your bowl of egg, cheese, and garlic. The hot pasta will cook the egg. Continue to add all the pasta and toss the entire mixture as you go to evenly distribute the egg mixture. After it’s all tossed, add about a cup of the starchy pasta water to the mix.
Spoon in a few tablespoons of the bacon grease to your pasta and continue to toss well.
Add a handful of pea shoots to toss in with the pasta and reserve a few for garnishing.
Season to taste with salt and pepper.
Divide into bowls and top with some fresh shoots.