Wasabi peas are a favorite afternoon snack in our house. They're crunchy and light, and they pack a nice balance of sweet and sinus-clearing punch. Don't those peas up there look tasty? Ok, now take a look at our homemade attempt below!
Yeah, these peas weren't quite what we were going for!
Most recipes for wasabi peas that we found on the internet called for cooking your own peas and then roasting them in a very low oven, which quickly turns into an all-day project with only a few cups of peas to show for your trouble at the end of the day. We really wanted to figure out a quicker and more efficient process
After making and loving oven-roasted chickpeas, we thought making a version with frozen peas was worth a shot. We ran two cups of frozen peas under warm water to defrost them, and then spread them out on a kitchen towel to get rid of the excess moisture.
We tossed the peas first with a teaspoon of olive oil and then with a paste made from 1 1/2 teaspoons of wasabi powder whisked with 1 tablespoon of rice vinegar. We spread the peas out on a baking sheet and toasted them in a 350• oven for about forty minutes total.
At around the twenty-minute mark, we knew things weren't going to turn out quite as we'd hoped. The peas were steaming instead of roasting and becoming mushy. On top of that, you could hardly taste the wasabi on the few we tasted.
Only slightly daunted, we continued baking for another twenty minutes. The peas did eventually dry out and get crispy on the outside, but the insides were still chewy. They were also roughly the size of pellets and could only be eaten with a spoon.
Oh, and the wasabi? We couldn't taste it at all. Total bummer.
Any suggestions, dear readers? Should we try cooking our own peas, but possibly bake them at a higher temperature? Double the amount of wasabi? Have any of you attempted wasabi peas at home?
• For reference, this is the recipe we originally found online: Wasabi Peas from Gourmet Sleuth
Related: Wasabi Macarons from Pierre Herme
(Image: Superior Nut Store and Emma Christensen)
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I always thought those were dehydrated peas that had the coating applied after they'd already been "cooked".
The taste of wasabi is going to be diminished tremendously via heat.
If I were to use frozen peas, I'd toss them in the dehydrator first, then roast them.
Alternately - deep fried? I don't know what that would do to peas, but I suspect it would help prevent them from shrinking.
Apply the wasabi as they cool.
I'm thinking the peas may actually be deep-fried,like some variant of a corn nut since the product is larger than the normal size in the same way.
Aren't the store-bought kind fried?
the ones in our grocery actually say "fried" -- let us know if you get to the bottom of this. It would be so great to have a trusty homemade recipe for wasabi peas!!
would a higher oven temperature work? so they would dry out faster? and then maybe a coating of wasabi powder at the end?
Thanks for the tips, everyone! I had no idea that heat affects the potency of wasabi - ya learn something new every day.
This isn't really a wasabi pea snack, but Mollie Katzen has a great recipe in her book "Vegetable Dishes I Can't Live Without." Here's a link from serious eats:
http://www.seriouseats.com/recipes/2008/01/cook-the-book-wasabi-peas-for-real-recipe.html
I would try using your slow cooker. I made some balsamic glazed nuts in the slow cooker (lid off, lots of stirring) that came out really well without overcooking. I'd sprinkle them with oil then add the wasabi at the end of the cooking time.
I always thought that the species/variety of pea used for wasabi peas was different than the regular peas you find at the grocery store. I don't know what kind that would be, but they definitely seem larger than ordinary peas. You might have to end up growing your own peas for this to work correctly.
I'm almost positive that wasabi peas are deep-fried as well.
The vibrant green suggests liquid nitrogen might be the method used in the manufactured version. The wasabi might benefit from a bit of pulverized panko in the paste.
I believe the store bought variety are generally made with marrowfat peas, which are a quite different beast altogether....
I thought they were "puffed," like corn or rice for cereals. I have no idea how "puffing" is accomplished. I assume it's one of those industrial processes I don't want to know about.
This gives me an idea to try to make roasted chickpeas with wasabi powder.
Matchbookhymnal:
I saw a video of a pastry chef making his own puffed rice cereal. The rice was already cooked, he added some cornstarch then put the rice in a very low oven overnight. He then sifted out the extra cornstarch and fried the rice.
I don't know if that's how it's done on an industrial scale, but that's what one guy did.
EmmaC: maybe a long slow oven is all you need. Get out and spend some time in your yard, clean, read, or watch some tv. Who says you have to be camped out next to the oven the whole time?
I thought there was some kind of freeze-drying process involved with wasabi peas... they're just too pretty to happen any other way, aren't they?
Off topic but ... I've been hunting for a recipe to make wasabi almonds, but I can't figure out how not to lose the kick of the wasabi when all the recipes I've been finding want me to toss the almonds in egg whites, which would then need to be cooked. Any ideas/
I have not tried this, but I wonder if it would work better to use a dehydrator instead of the oven.
It might even work to "sauce" the peas, dehydrate them, then toss them in the sauce again and dehydrate again (for less time) to create the thick coating of sauce.
I just tried this a couple weeks ago--same recipe, same technique... same no-good outcome!! I'll have to try another method. I've been on wasabi pea-withdrawal since going gluten-free three years ago (commercial wasabi peas include wheat flour for some reason).
There's allegedly a traditional cooking technique that uses sand instead of oil for dry frying. There may be information about this in Chinese or Indian cookbooks, for puffed rice or wheat recipes.
Just Tomatoes freeze dried peas might work.
The paste could be mixed and applied wet, then allowed to dry. Can anyone think of such a paste, maybe for confections? Ideas in Food posted some notes on their dried spinach puree crisps, which possibly could be adapted to this application.
I'm thinking there may be an Indian snack using chick peas as well, which could be adapted. Find out how chick peas are dried and turned into crispy snacks, and then try it with peas.
No new ideas for the wasabi peas, but you could use isomalt for wasabi nuts. (Thinking about mixing wasabi powder into isomalt makes me realize you could do a lot more with wasabi--wasabi oil, wasabi broth, wasabi snuff, lol. I like a little wasabi in my mayonnaise.)
I think peas used for making wasabi peas are different. Here in India, you can buy a variety of peas which is considerably harder. It works more like beans and needs to be soaked overnight for it to soften after cooking. It is this variety which is used in Indian fried snacks and has the same crunchy, sweet taste. I would reckon that since they are tougher than normal peas, they would hold up much better to roasting and not crumple.
OK, so I tried this recipe, but used chickpeas instead (as someone else mentioned) . . . and they came out great!!!
Check it out:
http://pressedwordsat.wordpress.com/2013/04/14/healthy-wasabi-chicks/
OK, so I tried this recipe, but used chickpeas instead (as someone else mentioned) . . . and they came out great!!!
Check it out:
http://pressedwordsat.wordpress.com/2013/04/14/healthy-wasabi-chicks/
OK, so I tried this recipe, but used chickpeas instead (as someone else mentioned) . . . and they came out great!!!
Check it out:
http://pressedwordsat.wordpress.com/2013/04/14/healthy-wasabi-chicks/