5-Minute Easy Sugar Snap Peas
This is one of those embarrassingly easy recipes that might change your life. I realize how dramatic that sounds. But don’t be fooled by the simplicity of this – it’s a little magical. The three-ingredients glaze is rich and umami and silky, against the crunch of the lightly cooked sugar snaps. Did I mention that these take about 5 minutes to make?
Soy Sauce and Butter
Soy sauce and butter might seem like an unusual combination, but it really, really works. I remember reading about it first a long time ago in a cookbook co-authored by Jean-Georges Vongerichten, who was one of the first to combine classic European cooking and techniques with Asian cuisine, and Mark Bittman, of How to Cook Everything fame. I thought huh, perhaps this award-winning superstar chef is on to something. And he was.
Snow Peas vs. Sugar Snap Peas
Sugar snap peas are a cross between regular garden peas (the kind you pop out of the pod before cooking and eating, and snow peas. They have fatter pods, and the peas inside as well as the outer pods are edible.
Snow peas are flatter, and the peas inside are smaller and flatter. They might also be called Chinese pea pods, and you will often find them used in stir fries. The whole thing is edible, though you should remove the tough strings which can be found on either side of the pod
You can use snow peas fairly interchangeably with sugar snap peas, but they usually aren’t quite as sweet. Both may be eaten raw or cooked.
Soy Glazed Sugar Snap Peas: This three-ingredient glaze turns sugar snap peas a silky and crunchy and umami side dish that takes 5 minutes to make!
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How to Make Soy Glazed Sugar Snap Peas
Heat the butter in a large skillet over medium-high heat until just melted. Add the snow peas and stir-fry 1 minute.
Add the soy sauce and the lemon juice and bring to a simmer, stirring, until the liquid reduces to a thin glaze.
Cook, stirring, until the peas are tender but still crisp. Season with the pepper and serve.
Not that the lemon juice adds a great burst of fresh flavor, but it can start to turn the peas a khaki green so you want to serve them pretty fast. The flavor will remain the same, but the color will get less vibrant.
What to Serve with Soy Glazed Sugar Snap Peas:
- Easy General Tso’s Chicken
- Simple Asian Salmon
- Vegetable Stir Fried Rice
- Japanese Miso Eggplant
- Miso Salmon
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Soy Glazed Sugar Snap Peas
Ingredients
- 1 ½ pounds sugar snap peas , strings removed
- 2 tablespoons butter
- 2 tablespoons soy sauce
- 1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
- Freshly ground black pepper to taste
Directions
- Cut each snow peas in half crosswise, on the diagonal.
- Heat the butter in a large skillet over medium-high heat until just melted. Add the sugar snap peas and stir-fry 1 minute. Add the soy sauce and the lemon juice and bring to a simmer, stirring, until the liquid reduces to a thin glaze. Cook, stirring, until the peas are tender but still crisp, about 2 minutes. Season with the pepper and serve.
Nutrition Information
The nutrition values are provided as an estimate. It is not intended as a substitute for the advice of a qualified healthcare professional.
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Loved them. Always ate sugar snap peas raw and wanted to try something different. So easy to prepare. Can’t wait to have them again. Yummers
This is in my regular rotation as a side dish for when I’m making a stir fry (or something else) that doesn’t have a lot of vegetables in it. I don’t always cut up the peas, but it turns out great either way!
Loved it.
Shared the recipe with the farmer that gave me the peas.
I added garlic to my butter.
It’s tasty, but step 2 in the instructions is wrong. If you have a cold skillet, then add butter, it’ll melt at a very low temp, not enough to stir fry the snap peas. So change the order. Heat skillet to med-high, add butter and once melted add snap peas so you actually stir fry them.
Outstanding recipe! However, there are two typos in it. Twice it says snow peas instead of sugar snap peas.
oh man, thank you!!! fixed.
Delicious