Peas and beans please. Not your ordinary English peas, green beans or even the popular snap peas with their edible pods. These are Southern peas and butter beans, with creamy texture and smooth taste. They are both cooked the same way here.
Southern peas are also called field peas or cowpeas, and if you’re lucky, you can find them fresh off the vines and shelled. Serving up a delicious mouthful perfect with hot cornbread, White Acre Peas are a treat from well below the Mason-Dixon line, to savor on lazy days and hazy nights.
We found ours at the farmer’s market in southern North Carolina, already shelled and waiting for simple cooking. Together with Butter Beans (aka baby limas though they taste nothing like the dried beans of soup fame), we are transported to summertime food heaven. Of course, you can always grow your own!
Serve with hot cornbread muffins (or hush puppies if you like frying) and a big ole plate of southern veggies (like corn, okra, tomato, peppers and green beans).
Once you try these , you’ll never think of peas and beans in the same way again.
Enjoy!