Sugar Snap Pea Salad
Updated Oct 12, 2025
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This Sugar Snap Pea Salad is bright, crunchy, and light; a perfect spring or summer side dish. With crisp sugar snap peas, tender and fragrant herbs, and a simply tangy vinaigrette, it’s simple, elegant, and fast to assemble. It’s a salad that feels fresh enough for a quick lunch and fancy enough for a company dinner.
If you want a salad that tastes like spring in a bowl, this Sugar Snap pea Salad is just the ticket. It’s crisp, fresh, and bright – just sugar snap peas, mint, dill, and a very simple vinaigrette, with some optional add-ins. I love this for weeknight meals, cookouts, or anytime I need something crunchy, lively and green on the table.
This delicious, light sugar snap pea salad also features crunchy cucumbers and some slivered red onions.
A snap pea salad is the perfect side dish to welcome in the spring season. It’s so quick and easy to pull together, with just a few ingredients. The zippy dressing is a basic homemade vinaigrette made with balsamic and rice vinegars, Dijon mustard, honey, and shallots.
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What's In This Post?
Best Sugar Snap Peas for Salad
Good sugar snap peas are sweet and crunchy. Disappointing sugar snap peas are fibrous and can be dull tasting, or even bitter. Look for firm, plump, non-cracked pods with no dry spots, and taste a couple before buying. Sometimes sugar snaps are called mangetout, French for “eat all”, meaning both the peas and the pod are edible.
How to Make Snap Pea Salad
- Blanch the sugar snap peas.
- Make the dressing: In a large bowl, combine the olive oil, balsamic vinegar, rice vinegar, Dijon mustard, honey, shallot, salt, and pepper.
- Assemble and serve: Add the sugar snaps, onion, cucumbers, dill, and mint to the dressing in the bowl. Toss to combine.
Some Pro Tips for a Bright and Herby Sugar Snap Pea Salad
If your sugar snaps are super young, small, and fresh, they don’t need to be cooked and you can leave them whole. If they are a little more mature, the natural sweetness and bright green color will be elevated with a quick blanching. I usually cut larger sugar snap peas in half crosswise so each piece is bite-sized.
I like to tear the herbs for this salad; the larger pieces really provide pops of fresh herb flavor. You can roughly chop them if you prefer. The dressing features rice vinegar, balsamic, and some Dijon mustard and honey. Try serving this with Grilled Salmon, Air Fryer Lemon Garlic Chicken Breasts, or a Grilled Flat Iron Steak.
What to Serve With Sugar Snap Pea Salad
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Sugar Snap Pea Salad
Ingredients
- 1 pound sugar snap peas (trimmed and halved crosswise)
- 1 red or yellow onion (halved and very thinly sliced)
- 3 baby cucumbers (thinly sliced)
- ¼ cup torn or roughly chopped fresh dill
- ¼ cup torn or roughly chopped fresh mint
For the Vinaigrette:
- 3 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
- 2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar
- 1 tablespoon rice vinegar
- 1 teaspoon Dijon mustard
- 1 teaspoon honey
- 1 small shallot (minced)
- Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper (to taste)
Instructions
- Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil. Fill a large bowl with ice water. When the water is boiling, drop the sugar snaps into the pot and cook for 1 minute. Drain the sugar snap peas and plunge them into the ice water.
- While you are waiting for the water to boil, make the vinaigrette: In a large bowl, combine the olive oil, balsamic vinegar, rice vinegar, Dijon mustard, honey, shallot, salt, and pepper.
- Drain the cooled sugar snap peas, shake off any excess water, and add them with the onion, cucumbers, dill, and mint to the dressing in the bowl. Toss to combine. Taste, adjust seasonings as needed, and serve.
Notes
Tips and Variations
- Try other fresh herbs if you like, such as basil. Chervil would also be lovely.
- If the sugar snaps are more mature, they may have a string running down one or both sides of the bean, where the halves are joined, and that should be removed by peeling it off as you remove the tips. Find a child or helpful guest or family member to help you with this slightly tedious but sometimes necessary task.
- If your sugar snap peas are young and don’t have a thick string running down the side of them, you can just trim off the tips on both edges, cutting off just the very end to keep as much of the bean intact as possible.
I loved this sugar snap pea salad! It was so easy to make and so fresh!
This is an interesting salad. I am always curious about why they are called “sweet snap peas” and they are not sweet at all. Thanks for sharing.
Sooooo good! Fresh and easy. Loved it ❤️
I agree with Kara, I was so impressed! I added some thinly sliced radish, parmesan, pepperoncini, and chickpea pasta (for protein). It was crunchy and bright.
Very bright fresh and tasty!