Grass Pea

Lathyrus sativus is a sprawling annual vine, 30 to 60 cm tall, with slender tendrils, narrow leaflets and blue, white or pink flowers. The flat pods, about 3 to 4 cm long, hold a few wedge-shaped seeds with a flattened, angular shape, usually cream, grey or mottled brown. The seeds taste mild, somewhat earthy and sweet, similar to other pulses, and cook to a soft texture. They are sold dried whole or split as dal, as flour, and in Italy as cicerchie, a regional dried legume. The plant also grows as forage.

Grass pea was domesticated in the Balkans and the Near East, and archaeological evidence shows it among the early Neolithic crops, spreading with farmers across Europe, the Mediterranean, western Asia and South Asia. The genus name Lathyrus comes from a Greek word for a pulse, and sativus means cultivated. In India the seeds are called khesari, and in Ethiopia the crop is called guaya. In Spain it is known as almorta, and in Italy as cicerchia.

Grass pea has been cultivated for around 6,000 years, and it appears in ancient sites in Greece and the Near East. Its great virtue is resilience: it tolerates drought, floods and poor soil, so it became a famine crop and an insurance when wheat or lentils failed.

The flip side was its toxicity. Physicians in antiquity, including Hippocrates, reportedly described a paralysis in people who ate large amounts of the pea. The disease, now called neurolathyrism, has been documented in Europe during famines, in India and Bangladesh, and in Ethiopia. The toxin responsible is the amino acid beta-ODAP. In parts of India, sale of the pea was restricted for decades, and new varieties with low toxin content were bred as a response.

In Italy and Spain the pea survived as a regional specialty. In Abruzzo and Tuscany, cicerchie are served in soups and stews, and festivals celebrate the legume. Researchers working on climate-resilient crops now take a renewed interest in grass pea and in breeding safe, low-toxin cultivars, which could help dry-land farmers.

Dried seeds are split and cooked as dal in India and Bangladesh, or ground into flour for flatbreads, fritters and a Bengal snack. In Ethiopia, they are cooked into stew called shiro-like preparations, and the young pods and leaves are eaten as vegetables in some places. In Italy, soaked cicerchie are simmered in soups with vegetables and olive oil. The plant is also used as fodder and a nitrogen-fixing rotation crop. Traditional processing includes soaking, discarding the water and thorough cooking, which reduces toxins.

Grass pea seeds provide protein, complex carbohydrates and fibre comparable to other pulses, and in some regions they are an important protein source for poor farming households. Used occasionally as part of a varied diet, they are widely regarded as safe. Nutritional benefits are overshadowed by the risk of lathyrism when the seed forms the bulk of the diet for months.