How boring do just green peas sound? Personally, I like plain old boring green peas withbutter, the kids, eh not so much.
The challenge was dressing up the green peas into something that was tasty, had texture and my get my non-pea loving children to eat them.
My first thought was what are some of their favorite food ingredients, and build from there. Cheese, crackers and peanut butter were the first things that came to mind. Peanut butter and peas, oh that would not go over good. However, the idea of cheese and crackers was stuck in my head, repeating over and over, skipping like an old record.
What kind of cheese to use, I didn’t want stringy melted cheese with peas trapped into like fly paper. I was looking in the fridge and found some gruyere, I had used in a Croque Monsieur sandwich. Next to the gruyere was parmesan cheese, yeah that will work nicely. It doesn’t melt easily and has a nice flavor to match the sweetness of the peas.
Next was the crackers, this was a bit difficult to master. I started outwith Ritz crackers. Good flavor, but the texture was not there and they can get a bit soggy. I decided that a good wheat cracker, like Triscuits might do really well. I used the garden herb flavor; by changing, the variety of crackers will change the taste. I think the next time I will use either the black pepper and olive oil or the roasted garlic variety.
My non-pea eating children, looked at me as if I had three heads, when I tried to serve this too them. In our house, the rule is you have to take three bites of everything new. If you don’t care for it after three bites, you don’thave to eat it. It did not take three bites… the kids loved this dish after the first bite! **Mom throws confetti and toots her horn**
Feel free to double this recipe, I made it and served four with leftovers. It would be safe to say you could get six servings using ¾-cup portions.
I think between the cheese and crackers there is enough salt. If you are on a salt restricted diet, try using the hint of salt crackers. You can always add in extra garlic or black pepper instead of more salt.
Ingredients:
16 ounce package of frozen peas
½ - ¾ cup of crushed Tristcuit crackers
2 Tablespoons of grated parmesan cheese
2-3 Tablespoons melted butter or margarine
Directions:
Cook green peas per package directions, be sure not to overcook them, wrinkled peas are not pretty
In a bowl toss, crackers, cheese and butter until well coated
Pour drained peas into a large bowl, top with cracker mixture. If you wanted, you could pour the mixture around the perimeter of the bowl, instead of over the top, thus forming a ring around the peas.
