Featured Ingredient: Sugar Snap Peas

I remember standing with my grandpa in his huge garden while he told me about “Lazy Man Peas.” They were peas that you didn’t have to break out of their pods to enjoy. You could just munch away at them pod and all. Really, these peas are mostly tender, fleshy pod, with just tiny little peas inside. The pods are fatter than snow peas, which are usually very flat, and they are delicious. The varieties we are accustomed to getting our hands on today first were introduced to the general American gardening public in the 1970’s, and Grandpa was on the cutting edge, although peas with such substantial pods have been around for 300 years or more.

I’m not sure when I saw a Lazy Man pea pod again, although by then they were using their more popular name: Sugar Snap Peas. In the many years between my childhood experience and my current farmer’s market obsession, they came to be very popular and easily available in supermarkets, fresh or frozen. And I came to anticipate the local snap pea season like a kid does Christmas.

Sugar snap peas are a rather versatile vegetable, and are good cooked as well as raw. I like to pull their slightly unchewable ends and strings off (you can kind of snap the stem end down and unzip the strings from the spine and belly of the pod) and eat them like candy. They’re nice chopped up in a green salad or are good as part of a veggie tray with Garlic and Herb Vegetable Dip or Green Pea Hummus.

They’re great raw in just about all other kinds of salads, too. They keep their crunch and play well with other vegetables in salads like Sugar Snap Pea and Radish Salad with Feta and Dill

 

Or Chopped Vegetable Salad.

Thinly sliced, they’re a nice addition to slaw like Napa Cabbage Slaw with Asian Flavors.

They’re also great with green peas, split peas, and walnuts in this Three Pea Salad with Walnuts and Parmesan.

 

The naturally crunchy nature of sugar snap peas allows them to hold up well to grains in salads, too, like in this Wheat Berry Salad with Sugar Snap Peas and Lemon Vinaigrette or Black Rice Salad with Snap Peas and Avocado.

Of course, you can cook snap peas as well. I particularly like them sautéed or stir fried until just tender-crisp, as in simple pasta dishes like Pasta with Snap Peas, Sage, and Breadcrumbs, 

or Pasta with Asparagus, Snap Peas, and Lemon.

 

And you can add them to an early summer stir fry, like this one.

 

 And if you have enough snap peas to enjoy them fresh while waiting for Pickled Sugar Snap Peas to be properly infused with vinegar, ginger, garlic, and chiles, so much the better. They’re well worth waiting for.

I love delving through my recipe collection to find new ways to use my farmer’s market snap pea gatherings, but if I can’t decide on the best way to use them, I’m perfectly happy to eat them all out of hand. On their own, they’re one of my favorite garden vegetable treats (at least until cucumbers and tomatoes arrive). And if my feelings for them qualify as an obsession, it may be the most healthy obsession in the world. 

Consider inviting sugar snap peas into your life this summer. Or don’t. I’ll be happy to eat them all.

Other posts like this one: 21Seasonal Favorites, Featured Ingredient: Asparagus, Featured Ingredient: Zucchini

Coming soon: Greens and Cheese Panini