Chickling Pea

The chickling pea is a scrambling or climbing annual legume to about half a metre, with narrow leaflets, tendrils and pale blue, white or pink flowers. Its short, flat pods hold two to five angular, wedge-shaped seeds that are cream, grey or mottled brown, with a flattened top, about five to eight millimetres across.

The seeds are mild and slightly sweet, with a dense, starchy texture when cooked. They are sold dried, whole or split, or milled into flour. In Italy, the large-seeded form, cicerchia, is a regional specialty. The plant tolerates drought, flooding and poor soils, which makes it a dependable crop where others fail.

Lathyrus sativus is thought to have been domesticated in the Balkans or the Near East in the Neolithic period, with archaeological remains in Europe and the Middle East dating back several thousand years. It spread to the Mediterranean, South Asia and Ethiopia, where it is still widely grown.

The genus name Lathyrus comes from an ancient Greek word for pulse, while sativus means cultivated. The common names grass pea and chickling vetch refer to its grassy foliage and its resemblance to chickpea. In Hindi it is khesari, and in Italy cicerchia, which shares a root with cicer, the Latin word for chickpea.

Grass pea has been cultivated for thousands of years as a robust crop that yields even when drought or floods destroy other pulses. This reliability made it a food of poor farmers and a crop of last resort in famines, including in India, Bangladesh, Ethiopia and parts of the Mediterranean.

The seeds contain a neurotoxic amino acid, ODAP (beta-N-oxalyl-L-alpha,beta-diaminopropionic acid), which causes neurolathyrism, an irreversible paralysis of the legs, when the pulse makes up a major portion of the diet for months. Writers since ancient Greece, including Hippocrates, noted the connection, and outbreaks occurred in Europe during famines and wars, including in the Second World War concentration camps, as well as in India and Ethiopia.

Governments restricted or banned its sale at times, for example in parts of India, although the ban was criticised for cutting off poor farmers from a hardy crop. Plant breeders have since developed low-ODAP varieties, and researchers propose that, with proper preparation and varied diets, the crop can be used safely. In Italy, the seed is celebrated as a traditional soup ingredient in regions such as Umbria and Abruzzo.

In Italy, cicerchie are soaked and slowly simmered in soups and stews, typically with olive oil and herbs, as a protected regional delicacy. In South Asia, split grass pea is cooked as dal, ground into flour for flatbreads and fritters, and in Ethiopia into dishes such as shiro-like stews and snacks. The young pods and leaves are eaten as vegetables in places.

Grass pea is grown as animal fodder, as a cover crop that fixes nitrogen, and as a rotation plant. Soaking and discarding the water, cooking well, and eating it as part of a varied diet reduce risks, while fermentation and parboiling methods have been used traditionally.

Grass pea is rich in protein, with a nutritional profile similar to other pulses, and supplies fibre, minerals and slowly digested carbohydrate. Its resilience makes it important for food security in drought-prone regions.

The main health issue is ODAP, the neurotoxin that can cause irreversible neurolathyrism when it is a dominant part of the diet over weeks or months. Occasional small servings as part of a varied diet, as in Italian cooking, are not considered to present the same risk, but research is limited, and low-ODAP varieties are preferred.