Around here in eastern PA where I live, Redbuds are a common landscaping tree. I know the flowers and very young pods are edible, but I'm curious to see if anyone has a good way to consume the mature seed pods, once the hulls turn dry and brown and the seeds harden.
I've seen people say that this is a food best consumed in season, but I would really like to be able to store the seeds throughout the winter as more of a staple food source. The trees around here produce tremendous amounts of seed pods, and they hang onto the tree throughout winter, have little to no problems with pests, and are easy to separate from the hulls.
I tried toasting them in a dry frying pan, but they were still fairly chewy. Then I ground them up into a flour, mixed it with some water, and tried to fry it, but that was a complete failure. I will continue to experiment, perhaps trying to cook them like lentils, but if anyone has any proven methods, please let me know. Thanks!
