I was shopping for freeze-dried peas (which I sometimes add to rice that I am cooking), and I mistakenly bought some whole dried peas (vatana) because they were so cheap, compared to the other options. The bag came with no cooking instructions other than to say to soak them and then cook with according to my recipe instructions.

I found this recipe for green pea curry that I thought I would try, but I am unsure about it. This recipe says that after soaking, the peas will get done after cooking in a pressure cooker for only 10 minutes. A review on Amazon said that the peas require 1-1/2 hours of cooking on the stovetop, and so I wonder if this can be reduced to 10 minutes in a PC.

I have four pounds of these peas, and so I would like to start collecting recipes for using them. I have already soaked 1-1/2 cups of the dried peas, and they look and smell very good and fresh. I think I might end up liking them better than the freeze-dried peas, but that remains to be seen.

At any rate, they are in my PC now and are just starting to cook.

How does the curry recipe look to you? The instructions say to add ginger, but ginger is not in the ingredient list. I am tripling the recipe, to make it worth my time. I'm also making a few minor substitutions or adjustments. I don't think I have asafoetida, but I will check. Since only a small amount is used, it might be okay to omit it. I'm going to use a red bell pepper in place of the green chilies, and I think that should be okay also.

I wanted to add potatoes to the peas, but I do not think they would cook at the same rate, and so I have omitted them - I'll just serve the peas with rice.

How would you add these peas to other recipes? Do they need to be cooked first or just soaked?

These are supposed to be good for sprouting, but I've never done that. Any suggestions for this?