The first time Davis Hood heard about pea tendrils, he was working at a restaurant near his hometown of Isle of Palms, South Carolina. “Our chef brought them into the kitchen, and the vibrant green color immediately caught my eye,” he says. “I asked him what they were and why he was using them. His simple answer was ‘They taste like spring.’” Seventeen years later, as the executive chef of Sullivan’s Fish Camp right down the road on Sullivan’s Island, Hood still gets excited when his kitchen gets a delivery of fresh shoots. “It is indeed our sign that spring has sprung.”
The young, tender shoots of the pea plant, tendrils have a sweet, earthy flavor—somewhere between a pea and spinach—and you can eat the leaves, blossoms, and crunchy hollow stems that curl up the trellis. Just treat them like any other leafy green vegetable by mixing them into stir-fries, wilting them into soups, or simply sautéeing them with garlic for an easy side. If Hood is prepping them, you’re most likely to find them raw in a salad (see recipe) paired with another star of spring: radish. “What grows together, goes together,” he says. “A salad with tendrils and shaved radish goes really well with any seafood—soft-shell crab, a fillet of mild white flaky fish such as flounder or mahi mahi, or even crab cakes.” If you’re growing the shoots yourself, harvest them when they’ve climbed twelve to eighteen inches. (Tip: To send an extra punch of pea flavor to the tendrils, pinch off a few blooms when they first emerge.) Pea shoots are also available fresh at grocery stores (look for them near other microgreens) and farmers’ markets throughout spring. The tendril coils should be bright green and springy, with no dark or slimy spots. “When fresh, they are truly a beautiful item,” Hood says. “To me there is no more iconic spring produce.”
