Field Pea

The field pea is a cool-season annual climbing or semi-erect legume, closely related to the garden pea, with pale green stems, curling tendrils and white or purple flowers. The pods are shorter and hold four to ten round seeds that are left to dry on the plant. The dried seeds are about 5 to 8 mm across and may be yellow, green, tan, mottled or brown, depending on the variety. Yellow and green types are commonly split, which removes the seed coat and halves the seed so that it cooks quickly into a thick puree. The taste is mild, earthy and slightly sweet. Field peas are sold whole, split, as flour, and as protein isolates.

Peas were among the first crops domesticated in the Near East around 10,000 years ago, in the Fertile Crescent, together with wheat, barley and lentils. They spread west to Europe and east to Asia and became a staple of the early farming societies. The English word pea arose from pease, from Latin pisum, and the field pea variety was named for being grown in fields as a field crop, in contrast with garden peas picked green. Arvense in Latin means of the field.

Archaeological finds show that peas were eaten from the earliest days of farming. In medieval Europe, dried peas were a staple of the poor, who ate pease pudding and pottage, and a nursery rhyme still mentions pease porridge. Because dried peas stored well, they supplied ships, armies and households through the winter, and became a part of cuisines from the British Isles to India.

The monk Gregor Mendel used pea plants in the 1850s and 1860s in experiments that founded the science of genetics. Field peas also helped farmers by fixing nitrogen in the soil, which made them a useful rotation crop, as well as supplying fodder for animals.

Today the main producers are Canada, Russia, China, and several European countries, along with Australia and the United States. Interest in plant-based protein has led to growing use of pea protein in processed foods and meat substitutes. In India and South Asia, dried yellow peas are cooked into dishes such as ghugni and matar kulcha.

Dried field peas are soaked and simmered into soups, stews, purees, and curries, such as split pea soup, dal, and pease pudding. They are roasted as snacks, ground into flour for breads, noodles and batters, and sprouted. The split form cooks in 30 to 45 minutes without soaking. Pea protein and fiber are extracted for food manufacturing. As a crop, field peas feed livestock and improve soil.

Dried peas are a rich source of plant protein, fiber, folate, iron, potassium and magnesium, with very little fat. Regular intake of pulses is linked in research to better cholesterol levels, blood sugar control and weight management as part of a balanced diet. The fiber and resistant starch feed beneficial gut bacteria, though they may cause gas in some people. Pea protein is widely used as a plant-based option, though its amino acid profile is lower in methionine.