How to Grow Blue Pea Sprouts in Australia

Blue pea (Pisum sativum) is a field pea in the legume family, Fabaceae, sprouted in a jar and usually cooked before eating. The sprouts are firm, crunchy, mild, sweet and a little nutty, and ready 2 to 4 days after the soak begins. Many first jars fail from overfilling, because the peas swell considerably and a packed jar cannot drain.

Three mistakes that matter

1. Overfilling the jar. Blue peas expand considerably in the soak. A packed jar leaves no room for water to drain or air to move, so the peas sour. Keep to the amounts in What you need.
2. Leaving water in the jar. Peas sitting in a puddle between rinses ferment and spoil, and standing water lets bacteria breed. Drain hard after every rinse and stand the jar tilted mouth down, as Soaking and Rinsing shows.
3. Soaking too long in a warm room. Peas left in warm soak water for too long begin to ferment. Keep to the soak times in Soaking and Rinsing, then drain.

When to sprout

A jar of blue peas grows on the kitchen bench in any month, and a room of about 18 to 22°C suits it. Warmth speeds the peas up, but a warm jar needs more rinsing and sours if it stays wet. In a cold room they grow more slowly, so give them the longer soak and a little more time.

In a heatwave, rinse with the coldest water your tap gives and keep the jar in the coolest room of the house.

Food safety

The warmth and moisture that sprout a pea also suit bacteria, and bacteria carried inside a contaminated seed cannot be rinsed away.

• Buy peas sold for sprouting. Garden pea seed can be treated with fungicide or insecticide, and choosing seeds to sprout explains the difference.
• Wash your hands before you touch the peas or the jar. Wash and rinse the jar, lid and bowl, then sanitise them before the first batch and between batches. Use a dishwasher that can sanitise, usually on its longest, hottest setting. Otherwise, soak them in very hot water (77°C for 30 seconds). Or soak them for 30 seconds in plain unscented household bleach at 25 mL to 10 L of cold water. Make the bleach solution up fresh each day and use it as its label directs. Let them air-dry.
• Soak and rinse only in water fit to drink, and keep the jar away from pets and raw meat.
• Keep the fridge at 5°C or colder and eat the sprouts within 3 to 4 days of harvest. Serve sprouts cooked for anyone at higher risk straight away. Otherwise cool them, keep them in the fridge, use them within a day of cooking and reheat them until steaming hot.
• Harmful bacteria can be present while sprouts look, smell and taste normal, so none of those is a test of safety.
• Throw out any jar that smells sour or musty, feels slimy or turns dark. Sprout problems and safety lists more signs.

What you need

A 500 mL or 1 L wide-mouth glass jar is enough, with a mesh sprouting lid or muslin held on by a rubber band. Add a bowl or rack that holds the jar mouth down at an angle, and blue peas for sprouting. A sprouting jar or mesh lids for mason jars will also do the job.

Blue peas are the whole dried field peas also sold as blue boilers for soup and mushy peas. They are not butterfly pea (Clitoria ternatea), a different plant whose blue flowers are sold for tea. Use whole peas: split peas have lost their coat and been halved, and few of them sprout. Peas grown on in a tray of mix until they are leafy are pea shoots, a different crop with its own method.

Soaking and Rinsing

A jar starts with one overnight soak, then needs a rinse two or three times a day.

1. Measure the peas, rinse off the dust and pick out any split, damaged or discoloured ones.
2. Tip them into the jar and cover them generously with cool drinking water, two to three times their volume.
3. Skim off any peas, skins or grit that float.
4. Soak for 8 to 12 hours: nearer 8 in warm weather, up to 12 when it is cool.
5. Drain off the soak water, rinse once with fresh water and drain hard.
6. Fit the lid and prop the jar mouth down at about 45 degrees in the bowl, out of direct sun.

From here on the peas are never soaked again. Rinse and drain two to three times a day with cool drinking water, three times in hot weather. Fill the jar, swirl, and pour the water out through the mesh. The tilt lets the last drops run out and fresh air in. Due to quarantine restrictions and our shipping policy, we cannot send blue peas for sprouting to Tasmania.

Day by day

Pea sprouts have no leaves yet, so light makes little difference to them. A dim corner of the kitchen suits, with air around the jar.

Harvesting and Storing

Blue pea sprouts are ready when most peas show a short white tail, around 6 mm long, and still feel firm.

Pick out any peas that never sprouted. Give the rest a last rinse, drain hard and dry them on a clean tea towel, because wet sprouts keep poorly. Pack them loosely into a clean, sealed container and refrigerate them straight away, within the limits in Food safety. Then wash and sanitise the jar, as Food safety describes, before the next batch.

Rinse stored sprouts under running water, then add them to a stir-fry, soup or curry and cook them through until steaming hot. Some people eat them raw in salads, or barely cooked and still crunchy. Either way they carry the risk set out in Food safety.

Common problems

Fuzz on the tails. Root hairs can show as fine, even white fuzz along the tail only, and they collapse when rinsed. Mould can be white too. It grows in cobwebby patches on peas and empty skins, stays after a rinse and smells sour or musty. That jar goes in the bin.

Sour smell or slime. The jar has spoiled, and rinsing will not rescue it. Throw it out, clean and sanitise everything, and check the drainage steps in Three mistakes that matter before the next jar.

Peas that stay hard. Old seed, peas stored badly, a jar kept too wet or too dry, and an overfilled jar can all leave peas that never sprout. Start the next jar with fresh seed, stored as Tips describes.

Tips

1. Start a small jar every few days rather than one big batch, so each lot is eaten at its freshest.
2. Buy fresh seed and store it sealed in a cool, dark, dry cupboard, as fresh seed sprouts faster.
3. Blue peas can share a jar with whole lentils or chickpeas, because their soak and rinse overlap. Keep the total dry seed to the amount in What you need.
4. Surplus sprouts can be frozen after 3 minutes over fast-boiling water in a steamer, a plunge into iced water and a thorough drain.