Cook Snap Peas – straightforward!

At a glance

What stands out: Learn how to cook snap peas, enhancing their crisp sweetness with a speedy hot sauté. Sugar snap peas are amazingly rich and so speedy and straightforward to mix.

How long it takes: 5 minutes to prep, 5 minutes to cook
Equipment you’ll need: skillet
Servings: 5 (or as many as you like)

Crunch! One of the easiest and best-tasting vegetables you’ll ever have, sugar snap peas are sweet, crispy, and so good! Make a bunch of them because these peas will disappear quickly.

You’ll find that fresh sweet peas are best when they’re just lightly cooked. “Keep it simple” is a standby motto with sugar snap peas. Raw sugar snap peas are great but a speedy sauté in olive oil changes their color into a vivid green and enhances the flavor. Try this recipe and tell us we're wrong!

The key to evenly cooked sugar snap peas is to cook them hot and speedy. Overcooking turns the peas into a drab olive green, turning them limp and almost kind of bitter. Not good! Give them just a speedy spin in a hot skillet and you’ll be amazed at the difference.

Sautéed Snap peas

It’s speedy and straightforward! We bet you can’t wait to learn how to cook snap peas. All you’ll need is a skillet and your stove. The ingredient list is short. Fresh dill adds great flavor to the peas but isn’t absolutely necessary.

Prepare the rest of the meal first because you’ll only need about five minutes to cook the peas. We like to serve the peas with broiled salmon made with our salmon seasoning because peas and salmon go well together, and the salmon cooks quickly, too. Sugar snap peas are a great side dish with ginger chicken thighs, too.

What goes in

• Sugar Snap Peas: If you want to save yourself some work, buy the kind that already have the strings removed! (we always do!)
• Olive Oil, Salt, and Pepper: Freshly ground black pepper is always best! Since this is a fairly simple recipe, a standby choice is high-quality, flavorful olive oil, but other types of oil will work too, such as avocado or grapeseed oil.
• Fresh Dill: Dry dill will work too, if it’s all you have. If you don’t like dill, you can leave it out all together, or add different seasonings. Garlic powder is rich!

How to prep snap peas

Rinse snap peas with water to clean them. You’ll want to remove the tough stringy part that runs along the sides of the pod.

Sometimes peas come with the strings already removed but it’s straightforward to do yourself. Watch this short video if you’d like to see how it’s done.

Ways to change it

• Garnish ideas: Try a bit of lemon zest instead of dill, or add it with the dill.
• Alternative cooking methods: Use the same “speedy is better” technique to boil, steam, or microwave the peas. A speedy blanching in boiling water (about 1 minute) is all you need. When the peas turn bright green, they’re ready to eat.
• Roast them: Try roasted sugar snap peas, totally irresistible!
• Substitute snow peas or shelled garden peas.
• Make it a stir fry. Sugar peas are great in a stir-fry because they love high heat and speedy cooking. Try this straightforward sweet chili chicken stir fry or ginger chicken stir fry.

Make Ahead Tip

Other than making sure the peas are de-stringed and washed, there’s not much you can do ahead. You can chop the dill.

Keeping leftovers

Refrigerate: If you happen to have leftovers, which actually is kind of unlikely, store the snap peas, covered, in the refrigerator for up to four days.

Reheat: Leftover snap peas are surprisingly good reheated if you don’t overcook them. Get a skillet good and hot and throw the peas in for just a minute or two to reheat, or microwave them briefly until warm.

• Yield: 5
• Prep: 5 minutes
• Cook: 5 minutes
• Total: 10 minutes

Ingredients

• 2 teaspoons olive oil
• 1 pound sugar snap peas, trimmed (see note)
• ½ teaspoon kosher salt, more to taste
• ¼ teaspoon coarse ground black pepper, more to taste
• 1 tablespoon minced fresh dill (if using dried dill, use 1 teaspoon)

Method

1. Heat oil in a large frying pan or sauté pan over medium-high heat.
2. Add the peas, salt, and pepper, and cook, stirring frequently, until peas are tender but still crisp and bright green, about 5 minutes. It’s better to err on the side of undercooking than overcooking.
3. Sprinkle with fresh dill and serve immediately.

Notes

How to prep snap peas: Rinse snap peas with water to clean them. You’ll want to remove the tough stringy part that runs along the sides of the pod. Sometimes peas come with the strings already removed but it’s straightforward to do yourself. Watch this short video if you’d like to see how it’s done.

Snow peas or shelled peas can be substituted for snap peas.

Storage tip: Store the snap peas, covered, in the refrigerator for up to four days.

Reheating suggestions: Get a skillet good and hot and throw the peas in for just a minute or two to reheat, or microwave them briefly until warm.