Green Peas

We don’t typically eat most legumes cooked from fresh, but green peas are definitely known for that. We can buy them fresh, frozen or canned and get fantastic nutritional benefits. They are great for feeding our toddlers (though we should mash them first for safety) and they’re a classic favorite for older kids too. Plus, we can also buy them dried and split, which are convenient for fixing up delicious split pea soups in minutes! 

Green peas are good sources of protein, fiber, vitamin B1, folate, copper, iron, manganese, phosphorus, and zinc. So, they are good for our heart, our brain, our bones, our digestion and probiotics, our immunity, our metabolism, our reproduction, our genes, our children’s early development, our red blood cells, and more. That being said, there is a big difference in nutritional values between each green pea presentation. Here’s what you need to know about each form:

Frozen peas are not frozen from fresh, they are blanched first, and they are the only green pea form that is high in vitamin A. Canned peas are already cooked, and they have the highest amount of vitamin K, 49% of our daily value (DV)! Dried peas are harvested when they are mature, then they are dried, their outer skin is removed, and they get split. This form is the only one high in potassium levels. Fresh peas are harvested earlier on, and one cup of them cooked gives us 62% of our DV of vitamin C.

Try our personalized nutrition calculator below to see just how much nutrition you and your family can get from eating green peas in each of their 4 most popular presentations.