If you’re staring longingly at your half-grown peas, wishing you could be enjoying that fresh spring taste right now, then I’ve got a great recipe for you!
You might not know it, but the entire pea plant — shoots, leaves, flowers and pods — is edible, and all of it taste like peas. I often grab a random pea leaf to munch on when I’m strolling in the garden. They also stand up to grilling, and the flavor is a great match with freshly grilled shrimp. Here’s how you do it:
- Turn the grill on high.
- Peel and clean your shrimp, then sprinkle with salt, lemon, and any other seasonings you might have (I didn’t use dill, but it would probably be fantastic).
- Remove the seeds from a sweet pepper and chop it into skewerable squares.
- Head over to your pea plants and pick a leaf or two off each plant. The bigger and older, the better. You’ll need one leaf for each shrimp.
- Grab one shrimp, wrap it in a leaf, skewer it, then stick on a piece of sweet pepper. Repeat until done.
- Add a bit of oil to protect while cooking. I gave the skewers a quick spritz of cooking spray; alternately you could toss or brush with oil.
- Throw ’em on the grill! With high heat, they need just a few minutes on each side.
- Enjoy!
The pea leaves help to protect the shrimp from drying out in the high heat of the grill, and they provide a nice, subtle hint of pea flavor that goes well with the light sweetness of the shrimp. We enjoyed ours with some other springtime favorites: grilled asparagus and sweet Walla Walla onions. Add some simply dressed lemon-parsley noodles and a glass of wine and you’ve got a great spring meal!
