Pasta with grass peas is a vegan recipe that can be cooked traditionally or using a pressure cooker.
Grass peas are a legume similar in shape and taste to chickpeas.
They contain many minerals and vitamins.
The presence of calcium, B vitamins, phosphorus, and potassium is beneficial for bones and teeth.
Grass peas are also low in fat and have a low glycemic index, with starch content that increases the body’s glucose tolerance.
They require a long soak, about 12 hours, and if cooked in a regular pot, they take 2 hours, while in a pressure cooker, it only takes 30 minutes from the whistle.
Then we can choose to eat them as a soup or with pasta, which we will cook together with the legumes as is traditionally done in Sicily.
The most important thing is that grass peas should never be salted until the moment they are eaten or when the pasta is added.
Today, I propose a light recipe without sautéed vegetables, but still tasty because it’s rich in vegetables, which we will keep whole, then blend separately and add to the pot at the end of cooking.
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- Cost: Very economical
- Rest time: 12 Hours
- Preparation time: 5 Minutes
- Portions: 4
- Cooking methods: Boiling, Pressure Cooker
- Cuisine: Italian
- Seasonality: All seasons
- Energy 353.63 (Kcal)
- Carbohydrates 47.76 (g) of which sugars 3.54 (g)
- Proteins 18.47 (g)
- Fat 10.59 (g) of which saturated 1.45 (g)of which unsaturated 0.28 (g)
- Fibers 10.61 (g)
- Sodium 355.23 (mg)
Indicative values for a portion of 300 g processed in an automated way starting from the nutritional information available on the CREA* and FoodData Central** databases. It is not food and / or nutritional advice.
* CREATES Food and Nutrition Research Center: https://www.crea.gov.it/alimenti-e-nutrizione https://www.alimentinutrizione.it ** U.S. Department of Agriculture, Agricultural Research Service. FoodData Central, 2019. https://fdc.nal.usda.gov
Ingredients
Let’s go shopping
- 7 oz grass peas
- 1 onion
- 1 carrot
- 1 potato
- 1 stalk celery
- 3 to taste cherry tomatoes
- 7 oz pasta (small grooved ditalini)
- to taste salt
- to taste pepper
- 3 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
- to taste chili peppers (if you like)
A look at health
Tools
What we need to make
- 1 Pot
- 1 Mixer
Steps
To prepare
The first thing to do is to soak the legumes in cold water for 12 hours.
After the soaking time, drain the legumes, rinse them, and place them in a pot with..
The onion, carrot, celery, cherry tomatoes, and a whole potato if you don’t have glycemic issues, otherwise it’s better to avoid the potato and carrot.
Cover everything with water until it surpasses the ingredients by at least five fingers’ height of water.
Cook in a regular pot for at least 2 hours, adding water as it dries, while if you cook with a pressure cooker, calculate 30 minutes from the start of the whistle.
At the end of cooking, remove the whole vegetables we had put in, transfer them to a glass bowl, and blend them.
If you want to eat the grass peas as a soup, simply add the blended vegetables to the pot, the salt, and a drizzle of extra virgin olive oil.
If you want to eat them with pasta, add a bit of water if needed, cook the pasta, and stir occasionally.
When the pasta is cooked, adjust the salt, add the blended vegetables, a drizzle of extra virgin olive oil, and if you like, pepper or chili pepper.
Here is the pasta with grass peas, a rustic and healthy dish.
Pasta with grass peas can be stored in the refrigerator for one day in an airtight container. It is also possible to freeze the grass pea soup without the pasta, and it lasts up to 6 months.
FAQ (Questions and Answers)
Pasta with grass peas
If I’m not vegan, how can I enrich this dish?
You can add bacon or a parmesan rind to further enrich the dish. I recommend browning the bacon in a pan and adding it at the end of cooking instead of the extra virgin olive oil.
