Peas

Let's talk about peas, and let's be honest about them first: a pea is a legume seed, though every cook treats it as a vegetable. That matters. Legumes carry more protein than most garden vegetables, and peas keep that promise — look at the numbers on this very ingredient, over five grams of protein per hundred grams, real food, not decoration.

Choose peas by the pod, not by the bag. A good pod is tight, glossy, almost squeaky when you run your thumb across it. Open one — the peas inside should sit close together, round, bright green, glossy to the eye. If they look dull and taste floury instead of sweet, they've been sitting too long; cook them and taste before you trust your eyes alone.

Some people say peas are "just water and sweetness," nothing serious, throw a handful into anything at the end. No! With over eighty kilocalories per hundred grams and real carbohydrate content, peas carry weight in a dish; they are not a garnish. Treat them as filler and you dump them in raw at the very last second, and you serve a dish with cold, raw, disrespected peas sitting on top of everything else that is properly done.