HOME HEALTH GUIDE

Wairarapa Times-Age, 3 November 1943, Page 5

HOME HEALTH GUIDE

USES FOR DRIED PEAS VALUABLE VITAMIN CONTENT (By the Department of Health) How many people appreciate just how important an article of diet the humble little-dried pea is? When you take into account its protein value, its vitamin B and C, and its calories, it’s a pretty useful form of food. One ounce of dried peas supplies as much vitamin b-1 as three ounces of germ bread. When green and fresh, or when sprouted they also supply vitamin C. New Zealand produces first-class peas. They are exported in dried form in large quantities, and in England children frequently spend their pennies on a portion of pease pudding instead of on sweets. Pease pudding makes excellent sandwich fillings, as well as providing the main dish for a meal. Mrs Beeton’s advice is to cook the peas in rainwater to prevent toughening, and another way of avoiding the bother of the long soaking and prolonged cooking that are required for pease pudding is to buy them ground as flour. You can cook peameal much more quickly. It enriches and thickens soups, and need not be added until about 20 minutes before it is served.

Dried peas can be soaked for 24 hours, and left to sprout, covered with a cloth kept damp. They first put out a root, and later a sprout, and they develop vitamin C in appreciable quantities. And as their starch is partly changed to sugar they become sweet to the taste. If the peas are left until the sprouts are about an inch long they make a tasty and valuable addition to a salad.