Matar (Green Peas): Picking Sweet Pods and Freezing for the Year

Buy matar pods that are bright green, plump, cool to the touch and squeak when you rub two together; then shell them the same day and blanch them for 2 minutes before freezing, and they’ll taste like December all year. That’s the whole trick. Below: how to store green peas in the fridge, the step-by-step freezing method, whether frozen peas are good for health, and how to keep your freezer stash safe through load shedding.

Why the season shift matters

Green peas are a winter crop. In the plains they’re sweet and cheap for about three months, then the heat arrives and the plants stop. That’s why so many households spend one weekend in January shelling kilos of matar in front of the TV. The swap for the rest of the year is simple: stop buying tired, pricey “fresh” peas in April and May, and use your own frozen ones or a good frozen brand instead. And watch out for bright green, rock-hard “peas” sold in the hot months: sometimes these are dried peas soaked and dyed.

How to pick sweet pea pods

A pea is a seed. Right after picking, its sugar starts turning into starch. So sweet peas are young, freshly picked peas, and everything you check at the stall is a clue to those two things.

1. Look. Bright, glossy green pods. Pale yellow, spotted or white-streaked pods are old.
2. Touch. Firm, smooth and cool. Limp or rubbery pods have lost water.
3. Squeak. Rub two pods together. Fresh ones squeak.
4. Feel the peas inside. Plump but not rock-hard. Flat pods mean tiny, unfilled peas; pods bulging like a string of marbles mean big, starchy, older peas.
5. Taste one. Pop one pod at the stall and eat a raw pea. A fresh pea is sweet and juicy. A floury, bland one is old.
6. Check the stem end. Green and fresh, not dried and brown.

Stall trap: vendors wet the pods to make them look glossy and weigh heavier. Damp pods also rot faster at home. Buy dry-looking pods and don’t let them sit in a closed plastic bag.

Varieties you’ll meet

Most market matar is “garden pea,” where you eat only the seed and throw the tough pod. Early-season peas (November) are often smaller and pricier. The peak-season peas of January are the sweetest and the ones worth freezing. Snow peas and sugar snap peas (flat or round pods you eat whole) turn up in city supermarkets; with those, the pod is the point.

Green peas storage in fridge

• In the pod: keep them unwashed in a paper bag or cloth bag in the vegetable drawer. Use within 3 to 5 days; they lose sweetness every day.
• Shelled: in a closed box in the fridge for 1 to 2 days only. Shelled peas dry out and turn starchy fast.
• Counter: only for a few hours. Heat turns the sugar to starch very quickly.

If you’ve bought more than you can use in 2 days, freeze them. That’s always better than a week in the fridge.

How to freeze peas for the whole year

Blanching (a short boil) stops the natural enzymes in peas that would otherwise make them taste flat, turn them dull and make them go mushy in the freezer. Don’t skip it.

1. Shell the peas and pick out any that are shrivelled, yellow or have holes.
2. Bring a big pot of water to a rolling boil. Use about 4 litres for every 500 grams of peas so the boil doesn’t stop.
3. Tip in the peas. Start the timer when the water boils again: 1.5 to 2 minutes.
4. Drain and plunge straight into a bowl of ice-cold water for 2 minutes.
5. Drain and spread on a clean cloth. Pat and air-dry for 15 to 20 minutes. Wet peas freeze into a single brick.
6. Spread on a tray in one layer and freeze for 2 to 3 hours.
7. Pack into zip bags in meal-sized portions (about 250 grams), squeeze out the air, write the date, and freeze.

Cook straight from frozen. They need only 3 to 5 minutes in a sabzi, pulao or keema because they’re already part-cooked.

Freezers and load shedding

A full freezer that stays shut holds its cold for about 48 hours; a half-full one, about 24. During outages, don’t open the door. Fill empty spaces with bottles of water so the freezer stays full. After the power comes back, peas that still have ice crystals can go back into the freezer. If they’ve thawed completely and sat warm for hours, cook them that day or throw them out.

Is frozen peas good for health?

Yes. Frozen peas are among the best frozen vegetables you can buy. Commercial peas are usually blanched and frozen within hours of picking, so they’re often sweeter than “fresh” peas that sat in a truck and on a stall for days. Blanching loses a little vitamin C, but fresh peas lose some every day they sit too. On minerals, protein and fibre, frozen and fresh are about the same.

Check the pack: it should say only “green peas.” Some brands add salt or sugar; skip those if you can. Avoid packs with a solid block of ice inside, as that means they thawed and refroze somewhere along the way.

Are green peas good for you?

Peas are more filling than most vegetables because they’re partly a pulse. A cup of cooked peas (about 160 grams) gives around 8 grams of protein, a similar amount of fibre, and roughly 130 calories, plus vitamin C, vitamin K, folate, thiamine and some iron. That protein makes matar a useful add-on to vegetarian meals, alongside dal and dahi.

What’s hype: that peas alone are “enough protein” or a weight-loss food you can eat without limit. They’re starchier than gobi or palak, so for diabetes, count a big serving of peas partly as your carbohydrate, not as a free vegetable.

Recipes: three winter classics

Matar pulao (serves 4)

Wash and soak 2 cups of basmati rice for 20 minutes. Heat 2 tablespoons of oil or ghee, add 1 teaspoon of cumin, 4 cloves, 1 bay leaf and 1 sliced onion; fry until golden. Add 1.5 cups of peas and 1 teaspoon of salt, stir for a minute, then add the drained rice and 3.5 cups of water. Boil, then cover and cook on the lowest heat for 12 minutes. Rest 5 minutes before opening.

Aloo matar (serves 3)

Cook 1 chopped onion in 1 tablespoon of oil, add 1 teaspoon of ginger-garlic paste and 2 chopped tomatoes with half a teaspoon of haldi, 1 teaspoon of dhania powder, half a teaspoon of chilli and salt. Cook until the oil separates. Add 2 cubed potatoes, 1.5 cups of peas and 1.5 cups of water. Simmer 15 minutes. Finish with garam masala.

Matar chaat

Boil 2 cups of peas for 5 minutes and drain. Mix with 1 chopped onion, 1 chopped tomato, 1 green chilli, a handful of dhania, the juice of half a lemon, half a teaspoon of chaat masala and a pinch of salt. Serve warm.

Good combos: peas with rice make a fuller protein than either alone; peas with potato make a comfort dish, but it’s a starchy one; peas with lemon or tomato help you absorb their iron. Peas in keema stretch a small amount of meat further.

Pods, shoots and the face-pack question

Garden pea pods are too stringy to chew, but they aren’t waste. Simmer a handful of washed pods in water for 20 minutes and strain for a sweet vegetable stock, or peel the inner papery skin from young pods and add the outer part to sabzi. Pea shoots (the young leaves and tendrils) are edible and taste like sweet peas; stir-fry them with garlic.

Ground green-pea face packs appear online. Mashed peas are gentle, but there’s no good reason to expect more than a cool, soft paste. If you try one, patch test on your inner arm for 24 hours first, don’t put it on broken skin, and wash it off after 10 minutes. Don’t add lemon juice: citrus on skin in sunlight can burn and leave dark patches.

Myths and surprising facts

Myth: frozen peas have no nutrition left

The truth: frozen peas hold their nutrients well and are often sweeter than market peas. The myth survives because “fresh” sounds better.

Myth: bright green peas in summer are fresh

The truth: out-of-season, very bright green loose peas can be soaked dried peas coloured with dye. Leave a few in a glass of water for 30 minutes; if the water turns green, that’s a warning sign, although only a lab can confirm a dye. Don’t eat or taste suspicious peas, just don’t buy them again.

Did you know?

Gregor Mendel worked out the basic rules of inheritance in the 1800s by growing and crossing thousands of pea plants in a monastery garden. And the pea is a seed, which is why it’s partly a pulse and partly a vegetable, and why matar has more protein than most sabzi.

For more winter swaps, see the Season Shift series and winter desi food portions; for more produce, browse Fruits and Vegetables. Peas also pair well with band gobi.

Matar questions people ask