Black-eyed pea protein isolates, products, and methods

A method of producing a black-eyed pea protein isolate comprising:

• tempering whole black-eyed pea seeds by adding water to raise the moisture content to 35 to 60 by wt. percent moisture;
• cracking the tempered black-eyed pea seeds with a shearing mill to loosen meat-hull mixture, wherein no more than 120 minutes elapses between exposing the whole black-eyed peas seeds to water and subsequent cracking of the black-eyed pea seeds;
• separating the meat from the hulls in the meat-hull mixture;
• wet grinding the separated meat to a fine mash;
• forming a slurry with water and lowering the pH to 1 to 3 to solubilize protein;
• separating acid protein-rich liquid portion from the protein-starch containing mixture;
• suspending acid wet cake into aqueous suspension and raising the pH to 9 to 11 to solubilize protein:
• separating alkaline-protein rich liquid fraction out from protein-starch containing mixture;
• and
• combining acid protein-rich fraction and alkaline protein-rich fraction and precipitating the protein out of the liquid portion to form a protein isolate.