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Arizona Gardening

Palo Verde Peas

11 years ago

Did you know that the seeds of the palo verde tree are edible, and delicious?

You have to pick them at just the right time: the pods must be green, and the seeds inside must not be too big. Once the seeds get super fat, they are too tough, although still sweet inside. The ideal stage is when they are just starting to plump up, but are still relatively flat and lozenge-shaped. Once the pods are picked, shell them ASAP. It's just like shelling garden peas, although the pods are a little bit tougher.

Palo verde peas are brilliant green and amazingly sweet, with a flavor that's hard to describe. I like them best raw, as a snack or on a salad. If you cook them, the less cooking time, the better; they lose their color quickly. I made brown rice, stirred it into a pan of sauteed mushroom and onion, then stirred in half a cup of palo verde peas and turned off the heat. They warmed up but kept their color, sweetness, and "pop".

So far the only PVPs I've eaten are from my "Desert Museum" hybrid. Anyone out there have a Foothills or Blue palo verde with tasty seeds? They are a bit time-consuming to pick and shell, but worth it.

Featured Answer

grant_in_arizona

11 years ago

Great information on eating the green Palo verde seeds, piranha! I'll give it a try some time. They sound delicious, especially in the recipe you shared. I've heard of folks using dried mesquite beans for different culinary uses, but I haven't heard of eating green unripe PV seeds. Thanks for sharing!

Take care and happy eating everyone,
Grant

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Comments (14)

tomatofreak
11 years ago
I have a DMPV and I have never seen pods on it. Got tons of pods on what's supposed to be lysiloma, but nothing on the palo verde. What gives?
piranhafem
Original Author
11 years ago
Huh, no idea! Mine flowers gorgeously, and bears lots of seed pods. Maybe some of them are sterile?
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Desert museum is indeed a beautiful tree, but is a hybrid and unfortunately would not come true from seed. It was one of a kind and is grown from cuttings. HERE is the history of the tree. Below in italics is a paragraph from the link: "Desert Museum was a discovery, not the result of a breeding program. In 1979, I collected a few dozen seeds from a first-generation hybrid and grew them. All except one seedling were uninteresting. The one seedling grew into a superior tree. Genetic and phenotypic analysis revealed that the hybrid had been pollinated by a blue palo verde. I named it Desert Museum with the expectation that Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum would patent the tree and make some money from it. Oh, how they wish they had now. ... Desert Museum does produce viable seeds. I have grown hundreds and all were inferior to the parent." I'm not sure how well Arroya sweetwood tree grows in South Florida since it likes alkaline soils, but I could send some seeds which will come true. It's fast growing, has smooth fragrant bark and leaves, and beautiful white flowers in spring. Maybe you could do some research and find out how it would do there. Perhaps some others on here would have some suggestions of what might be a good tree to grow for your worthy project. We wish you well!
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tomatofreak
11 years ago
Oh, it flowers all right! The yard in all directions is a carpet of dried gold blossoms. But there is not a pod in sight. I've had the tree for years and never knew it was supposed to make beans. ????
Pagancat
11 years ago
Cool information, thanks!

'mater, the Desert Museums are noted for very few pods.
tomatofreak
11 years ago
I'll say "very few pods" - I went out to look and actually found two! One had two beans, the other had one. Hardly a snack.
Pagancat
11 years ago
Well, and it's a "complex" hybrid with possibly 3 parents, so you haven't a good idea of what you're eating, lol. I'd stick to edamame for you!
piranhafem
Original Author
11 years ago
I'm very happy that mine makes LOTS of pods. It takes a lot to make a cup of peas. I was thinking of getting more of these trees, good to know they might not be pod-bearing.

I like palo verde peas much better than edamame!
tomatofreak
11 years ago
I neglected to say, I ate all three peas. They were tasty, but I think it will be edamame for me.
greyongray
11 years ago
Love them -- have tried both blue palo verde and foothills. I am also unfortunate enough to have jerusalem thorn, and tried one of those as well, but since I haven't seen it on any list of local edibles I just popped it in my mouth (a moment of curiousity) and spat it out as if that would somehow stop any harmful effects. Have desert museum and will try them next year.

My only complaint is that they are kinda hard to shell. Up soon: mesquite bean harvest.
Pagancat
11 years ago
LOL - Desert museum is the one that *barely* gets pods. If you want some you can always come and get them off of my trees, I have about 10 of 'em.
lazy_gardens
11 years ago
Edible, yes. Delicious? meh!
Kathleen W
11 years ago
I just tried the Foothills (green) palo verde beans this year. Can't believe I never realized before that they were edible. They were sweet and like a cross between edamame and fresh peas. So far I've only added them to a fresh salsa/quac (tomato with avocado, fresh sweet corn and PVBs) but it was tasty. I put 2 cups of them into the freezer for salads and stuff.

I agree, the shucking is unbelievably time consuming but it is a bit easier if they are blanched for a minute.

I have foothills, blue and Mexican PVs but only tried the foothills. By the time I decided to try them, the blue was too far dried out and the Mexican has too few on our couple of sparse trees.

I understand you can grind the whole dried PV beans just like they do with mesquite. Have known that a long time and just this year realizes - duh, the fresh green pods might be nice! However, I've seen the little bugs that invade these dried pods (any pods PV, mesquite or otherwise) and I really don't like the idea of grinding them up too. Ew, just sort of sticks in the craw!
piranhafem
Original Author
11 years ago
Kathleen, somehow I had never heard you can grind the whole dried pod, too. I may have to try that with the ones I didn't get around to picking when they were green. With mesquite pods, I find that if you leave them laying around for a while, all the bugs hatch and leave anyway! But if any are still in there, I say, extra protein. :-)

I shelled my palo verde peas in the evening while I watched TV. I got faster with practice, and it made my "down time" productive.

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