Skip to main content

Summer Love: Sugar Snap Peas


Snap peas the best items from the garden, fresh and crisp, slightly sweet and have a wonderful crunch. In case you’re not sure what’s a snap pea, they’re like the chubby brother of the snow pea or the little cousin of edamame.

How to Store: Store in the crisper section of the refrigerator in a perforated plastic bag. Use within 2-3 days for the most nutrition.

Enjoy Raw: You can eat the full pod and all with snap peas, there’s no reason to shell them. Just remove the stem and they’re good to go.

Enjoy Cooked: Blanch snap peas in boiling water for about 1 minute (don’t overcook as you’ll destroy some of the heat-sensitive nutrients) and put immediately on ice to stop the cooking and retain their color. Use in your summer salads by cutting in half and tossing with the rest of your greens!
Here are a couple ideas of what to make with your fresh sugar snap peas.
Sesame Snap Peas



1/2 pound Snap Peas, trimmed
1 teaspoon Asian sesame oil
1 scallion, sliced thinly on diagonal
2 teaspoons sesame seeds, toasted lightly

1. Cut snap peas on diagonal in half.

2. In a saucepan of boiling salted water blanch snap peas for 1 minute and drain in a colander. Immediately transfer to a bowl of ice water to stop cooking; then drain well.

3. In a bowl, toss peas with oil, scallion, sesame seeds, and salt to taste.

Sugar Snap Peas with Carmelized Onions, Mint and Almonds



Makes 4 servings

1 pound sugar snap peas
1/2 medium onion
1 handful fresh mint leaves (about 1/4 cup chopped)
1/4 cup almonds
1/4 cup rice vinegar
1/4 cup olive oil
1 teaspoon lemon zest (from 1 lemon)
2 tablespoons lemon juice (from 1/2 lemon)
Salt and pepper to taste

1. Bring a pot of salted water to a rolling boil.

2. Chop the onion and cook over medium-high heat in an oiled sauté pan until carmelized (about 20-25 minutes).

3. Wash the sugar snap peas and de-string them if necessary, snapping the tip and removing the fibrous strand running lengthwise. If the snap peas are young though, you won’t have to do this. Drop the sugar snap peas into the pot of boiling water. Cook for 1-2 minutes, then strain out and drop them into an ice bath.

4. Once the snap peas are cooled, strain them out and place half of them in a large bowl. Shell the other half, adding the peas to the bowl. Julienne the remaining pod shells lengthwise and add to the bowl.

5. Roughly chop the mint leaves. Toast and roughly chop the almonds. Add mint, almonds, and carmelized onions to the bowl.

6. Mix together the rice vinegar, olive oil, lemon juice and zest, and drizzle over the salad. Toss well, add salt and pepper to taste. Serve at room temperature or chilled.






Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Meatloaf by Mark Bittman

Once again, I turned on the television yesterday and saw that Mark Bittman was on the Today show and was making his version of  meatloaf .  This must be meatloaf season.  It was surprisingly similar to the  Pioneer Woman's version  who was also recently on.   I was a little surprised of his version because Mark Bittman is into healthy eating and has lost a lot of weight and improved his health by changing his diet which he writes about in his book,  Food Matters .  His meatloaf recipe also included bacon and cheese!  I must be doing something wrong.  The thing to remember, which he writes about in his book, is that you can eat healthy without going extreme or changing your whole life.    If you don't know who Mark Bittman is, he is a food writer and a four star chef with multiple cookbooks who loves to eat but changed his food philosophy to improve his health.  He tells his story in Food Matters and provides ...
4 comments
Read more

Trader Joe's Gluten-Free Oatmeal, Peanut Butter and Chocolate Chip Cookies

I don't have very many gluten-free cookies on my blog because quite frankly, I usually don't like gluten-free.  But occasionally, I do find a good recipe and this is one that is from the back of the Trader Joe's oatmeal and it's a good one.  My friend brought some over to our house last weekend when Nick and family were here for our birthday celebrations  and we all loved them. My friend lives a few blocks away and we walk the neighborhood together on weekends.  We can easily go 5 miles in no time, talking non-stop.  She loves exploring our neighborhood as much as I do and we discover so many favorite little spots.  We even found a property with a horse (or more like a pony, I should say.)   The views are always quite lovely, too.  Bruce and I had our thirty-ninth wedding anniversary on July 18th and I made a point of walking past the house where we had our wedding reception.  I told my friend, "Thirty-nine years ago today, t...
2 comments
Read more

Waking Up in Vegas

and just like that...we were Waking Up in Vegas.   Just like the Katy Perry song. We went to her 78th performance which was her second-to-last Las Vegas residency show entitled "Play".  That was perfect for us because we went to Vegas simply to play.  Her concert was a great finale for us because it was high energy and full of silliness, just the way Katy Perry is.  And we were feeling it after three nights in Las Vegas. "Get up, and shake the gutter off your clothes now, That's what you get for waking up in Vegas".    Here's what she said about her show: "I created this show after the birth of my daughter, Daisy Dove. When I met her, it was like all the love I was ever searching for finally showed up. This show is for everyone’s inner child and for the hope that maybe if we could all see life through the eyes of a child, we would be free. Because never forget, love is and will always be the key,” she said. We went to Vegas spur of the moment because Br...
Post a Comment
Read more