Add Flavor To Your Dish With Pea Shoots & Microgreens

By Crystal Grobe

"Why doesn't every market sell microgreens and sprouts?" is what my husband asked me after a recent visit to the Fulton Farmers Market. We had just picked up a bag of pea shoots and a container of microgreens from Turtle Hare Farm after sampling their offerings. Even our niece and nephew got in on the tasting and asked for more when we got home. They loved eating the tiny greens and asked what how we'd be using them in a meal. I explained how easy it is to increase the nutritional content of a dish by adding some microgreens to a prepared deli salad, adding them to a sandwich, or incorporating them into a salad to vary the flavor. Pea shoots, the top leaves and vines of a pea plant, work equally well in salads and sandwiches and can also be lightly cooked in a stir fry (add them last), or folded into a quesadilla. They have a very mild flavor similar to alfalfa or bean sprouts, making for an easy addition to most dishes.

Most recently though, I went the salad route: pea shoots, microgreens, spinach, shaved beets and sliced radish with a piece of smoked salmon from our Sitka Salmon share on top.

I see that Turtle Hare Farm offers a winter and spring CSA and with pickup locations in the East Metro, those of you on the eastside have plenty of opportunity to enjoy this fresh goodness year round!

What dishes would you add microgreens and pea shoots to?