LFC KITCHEN| jANUARY 2026
Nidhi: Experimenting with matar chilka (pea peels) today. Not the regular sabji. Not a soup. The most difficult part is over… removing this transparent, inedible layer from the inner side of the peels.
Bindurao: Very curious about which recipe you are making with this.
Anita: Paratha? Poori? Chutney?
Nidhi: That was a quick fail. I thought if it makes a great sabji and a great soup, it might make a great gravy base for matar paneer. But the paste tasted and smelled very grassy… Overpoweringly so… Even upon being sautéed.
Anita: Hmm. Sieved?
Nidhi: No, then it would have been a soup, not a gravy… I wanted the thickness.
Anita: I sieve and add cashew paste. But whatever we do, we should remember, it’s chilka!
Bindurao: I felt it would make a great paratha stuffing after being sautéed. Like a dry stuffing or anything like a matar kachori with dry spices.
Anita: Fibre is too tough, it will have that smell.
Bindurao: For matar ka chilka, it has to be just the tender ones, the slightly mature ones don’t cook at all. Can puree and add in a dosa mix /rotis instead.
Paromita: Bengalis use it in a mixed veg preparation called chorchori, featuring potato, eggplant, pumpkin, cauliflower and so on. Remember, unless you have plucked it out yourself off a field, these things are not very fresh. Also, we used very young, green pea pods, where the peas are small and sweet. The pods of fat peas won’t have much taste.
EXPLORE: Check out the excerpt from The No-Waste Kitchen Cookbook, where bruised tomatoes, cauliflower stems, and pea peels aren’t considered trash, but the beginnings of flavour, here.