Why eat peas?
There are four brilliant reasons to eat more peas.
They’re healthy
- They’re low in fat, and therefore calories.
- Just one serving of freshly frozen garden peas and petits pois contains as much vitamin C as two large apples!
- Peas are a good source of vitamin A, vitamin C, folate, thiamine (B1), iron and phosphorus.
- Half a cup of frozen peas has only 5% of the daily value for sodium, so they’re easy on your heart.
- They’re rich in protein. A 100 calorie serving of peas contains more protein than a whole egg.
- In fact, an 85 gram serving of cooked peas provides 50 calories, 4 grams of protein, 8 grams of carbohydrate (of which 3.5 grams are sugars), 3.8 grams of fibre, 17mg of vitamin C (a third of the recommended daily allowance) and 0.2mg Thiamine (B1) (15% of the recommended daily allowance).
- Freezing is ‘nature’s pause button’ – garden peas and petits pois are frozen within 150 minutes of being picked, so none of these nutrients are lost. It’s like eating them straight from the pod.
They’re convenient
- Serving them is quick. Simply pop them in boiling water and simmer, or steam them, for three minutes.
- They freeze brilliantly, so they’re convenient – you don’t have to worry about them going off.
- No matter the season, freshly frozen garden peas are available throughout the year.
- Being freshly frozen, there’s absolutely no preparation needed for recipes. Just add to your recipe or pop them straight into soups, casseroles or curries.
- There’s no wastage. Garden peas or petits pois chosen for freezing are the pick of the bunch – nothing goes in your bin except the bag!
- Peas are cheap – one 50 gram serving costs about 5p.
They’re local
- Peas are grown here in Britain, so you’ll be supporting our farmers.
- In fact, Britain is self-sufficient in peas!
They’re friendly to the environment
Peas are something of a miracle plant.
Most crops deplete nitrogen from the soil as they grow – which is the main reason farmers use fertilisers, which are essentially added nitrogen.
Peas, however, actually replenish the nitrogen in the soil – this makes them fantastic crops to grow in a regular rotation, to keep farmland healthy and fertiliser use at a minimum. It’s also our secret for how we use so little spray!