Skip to main content
Epicurious
Cookbooks

Snap Pea Salad

By April Bloomfield

4.6

(3)

Image may contain Plant Food Vegetable Produce and Pea
Photo by David Loftus

I admit that I'm hard on sugar snap peas. I get disappointed when they suck, of course, but I also get grumpy when they're anything less than perfect—unblemished, super sweet, and not a bit starchy. That's the curse of keeping high standards, I suppose: you're so rarely satisfied. When at last I do find perfect snap peas, I make this salad. I leave them raw—only the finest snap peas can be this delightful without a dunk in boiling water—and accentuate their flavor with little more than a lemony dressing and mint. If you'd like, you could add some creamy goat cheese in blobs or good old burrata alongside.

Cook's Note:

If you wish to remove the maximum string from your snap peas, try this: With one hand, hold a snap pea so the concave side is facing you and the stem end is facing down. With the other, use a small, sharp knife to cut just below the very tip of the pea and pull towards you, removing the string in the process. Rotate the pea so the stem end is facing up and the concave side is facing away from you. Now cut just below the tip of the pea and pull towards you, removing the string along the spine of the pea. This goes quite quickly once you get the hang of it, and you never have to worry about a stringy bit mucking up a good bite.

Recipe information

  • Yield

    Serves 4

Ingredients

1 pound sugar snap peas, trimmed and strings removed (see note)
A five-finger pinch of mint leaves (preferably black mint), roughly chopped at the last minute
1/4 cup Simple Lemon Dressing
Maldon or another flaky sea salt
Lemon juice
Large handful delicate, peppery arugula

Preparation

  1. Step 1

    So long as you find the right snap peas, you'll have a smashing salad. But I find that putting your knife to them adds even more excitement, a little textural variation and attractiveness. Accordingly, run the tip of your knife along the spine of some of the larger pods, open them like a book to expose the peas, and gently pull to separate the two sides of the pod. Slice others diagonally in half or thirds. Keep small ones whole.

    Step 2

    Combine the peas and mint in a large bowl. Pour in the dressing and toss gently but well. Season to taste with more salt and lemon, if you'd like. Add the arugula to the bowl and toss gently to coat the leaves in the dressing without bruising them. Arrange it all prettily on a platter and serve straightaway.

From A Girl and Her Greens © 2015 by April Bloomfield. Buy the full book from HarperCollins or from Amazon. Reprinted with permission from Ecco, an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers.
TagsSaladSugar Snap PeaPeaBean and LegumeVegetableSideDinnerNut FreeVeganVegetarianDairy FreeRawGluten FreeQuickEasyEasterSpringHarper CollinsCookbooks

See Related Recipes and Cooking Tips

Read More
Gigante Beans With Seaweed Salmoriglio
Salmoriglio is a Mediterranean sauce with herbs, garlic, and olive oil. In this version, kelp is used as the base of the sauce.
Fattoush Salad With Lemon-Sumac Dressing
Every salad should have pita chips.
Fufu
Fufu is a dish that has been passed down through many generations and is seen as a symbol of Ghanaian identity and heritage. Making fufu traditionally is a very laborious task; this recipe mimics some of that hard work but with a few home-cook hacks that make for a far easier time.
Charred Vegetable Ragù
This sauce is slightly magical. The texture cloaks pasta much like a traditional meat sauce does, and the flavors are deep and rich, but it’s actually vegan!
Mint Julep
A strip of lemon zest balances this refreshing spring classic.
Smothered Italian Sausage
This is what I call a fridge-eater recipe. The key here is getting a nice sear on the sausage and cooking the tomato down until it coats the sausage and vegetables well.
Grape Dumplings
Native American people made these with cornmeal dumplings, simmering them with wild grapes, which were harvested at their peak sweetness.
Crispy Oyster Mushroom Skewers With Bok Choy Salad
Oyster mushrooms are a strong all-rounder in the kitchen, seeming to straddle both plant and meat worlds in what they look and taste like when cooked. Here they’re coated in a marinade my mother used to use when cooking Chinese food at home—honey, soy, garlic and ginger—and roasted until golden, crisp, and juicy.