Ingredient of the Week: Peas

“This is the time of the year when everyone should be getting their peas in the ground,” says chef Tom Douglas, and if you have gotten them in early enough you can harvest pea vines.

“I did a little crab salad with fresh Dungeness crab meat, and I mixed pea vines in it,” he says, “with the grating of a lemon and a little lemon juice with some salt and pepper and just made a light little salad. And then I crushed it with a little scallion Hollandaise.”

He suggests cooking the pea vines in a hot wok, either after a quick blanche in hot water, or put them directly into the wok; he suggests checking for tenderness first.

“Pea sprouts and pea vines are, to me, the harbinger of spring,” he says.

Whole Foods Markets are a proud sponsor of Seattle Kitchen’s Ingredient of the Week.