Sugar Snap Pea Salad

5 from 34 votes

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.

Prep Time1 9

Cook Time1

Total Time1 10

Course: Appetizer, Side Dish

Cuisine: American, Mediterranean

Diet: Gluten Free, Vegetarian

Servings: people

Author: Katie Workman

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.

Make-Ahead

You can make this up to 2 days ahead of time and store it well-sealed in the refrigerator. The beans will soften a bit more in the dressing, and their bright green color may fade a bit, but it will still be delicious.

Nutrition