A 10-minute, quickly sautéed fresh sugar snap peas recipe bursting with a unique mint-ginger flavor. These stir-fried snap peas are an easy side dish or a healthy snack.
Sugar Snap Peas and I don’t always get along.
We have had a tumultuous relationship because we don’t seem to understand each other!
Until now?
Originally published on May 29th, 2019 at 3:59pm. Click here to see why this recipe was updated.
🛒 Ingredients
- Mint leaves
- Extra virgin olive oil or avocado oil
- Ginger
- Salt (Pink salt or Kosher salt)
- Lemon Juice
- Sugar Snap Peas
🪜 Instructions
1. Prepare the Mint Mixture
- In a small bowl, start by muddling about 5 leaves and salt.
- Muddle in 5 more mint leaves, plus a little of the oil.
- Continue the process until all the mint leaves and oil is used up.
- Add the two pieces of ginger to the mint.
- Muddle the ginger and add the lime juice
- Set it aside
Cook Sugar Snap Peas
- Heat a wok or large skillet on medium heat for 30 seconds, then add the oil and heat for another 30 seconds.
- Gently put the sugar snap peas in the oil.
- Saute them on both sides (3 minutes per side).
- Add the mint mixture and mix well
- Turn off the heat and let it sit on the stove for about a minute before serving
- Optional: Sprinkle 1 tablespoon of crushed chia seeds on top for added nutrition.
🍅 Handy Tip: To keep the sugar snap peas crunchy, don’t cook them in water. That means no boiling or steaming them in a pan or cooking them in the microwave.
Sugar snap peas vs snow peas
The basic difference is the size of the two. Sugar snap peas have thicker and sturdier pods. The pods are “puffy” in shape because they have space inside the pods
The peas inside the sugar snap peas are larger compared to snow peas. They also taste sweeter and can be eaten individually
Snow peas, on the other hand, have teeny tiny peas, and their pods are almost flat in shape. They can’t be split open to remove the peas because it’s just pointless to do so
Snow peas tend to cook faster and are perfect for stir-fry recipes. Check out my stir-fry snow peas with carrots recipe.
It took me forever to realize the difference between sugar snap peas and snow peas! But now, I feel like I am a pro at telling the difference! It took a lot of trips to farmer’s markets, grocery stores, and cooking them repeatedly!
Garden peas are completely different because they are much bigger than both sugar and snow peas.
Growing sugar snap peas is, well, a ‘snap’! 🙂 Check out all the tips and tricks on growing them via Bonnie Plants and Frugal Family Home. Know your frost season, full sun season, aphids, and type of soil to use.
✂️ How to trim sugar snap peas
Trimming sugar snap peas is a “snap”! Hold one pea pod with the curvy part facing you.
Take the stem edge with the thread or tip of the peas and pull along the curved side.
That’s it!
If you can find the trimmed version at your local grocery store, get those because they are huge time savers.
🍅 Handy Tip: For the best taste experience, remove the “thread” from the pea pods (AKA trim sugar snap peas). Hold the stem edge and gently pull down towards the curved part of the snap peas.
❓ Answering Common Questions
Sugar snap peas can be eaten with the pod itself. The pod is edible and said to have tons of fiber, vitamins, folate, and other nutrients. Source: Live Strong
Yes, you can shell the pea pods and eat them as they are perfectly delicious without the pod. Stir-fry them lightly in a wok or pan with the mint mixture. Compost the pods or mix with other vegetables to make broth.
Yes, they can be frozen. Don’t cook them, freeze them raw. Wrap them in a paper towel and put them in a Ziploc bag. Write the date and lay the bag flat in the freezer. Use within 6 months of freezing or a week, if you refrigerate them.
– Spice it up by adding peppers like jalapeno or black pepper.
– Sprinkle with hemp seeds, flax seeds, or sesame seeds
– Add tofu crumbles for protein
– Shallots or onions
– Mix with buttered radishes
– Feta or other crumbly cheese
– Garlic cloves
They are fairly easy to grow at home. Use grow bags or big planters because they grow on trellis. You will also need a good support structure for the vines.
🧊 Freezing tip: Ideally, you want to eat the snap peas raw, but you can freeze them in freezer-friendly bags. Use it within 6 months.
Muddling the mint
The mint is the best part of this recipe because it adds a very unique flavor to the peas. Sweet pods and mint are the perfect combination
But, I muddled the mint because it retains all its flavors. I think muddling mint is better than putting it in the food processor. I don’t know why it tastes better to me, but it does.
I like using this (affiliate link) wooden muddling tool , which does an AMAZING job of muddling mint, basil, sage, and even coriander! Those are the herbs that I have tried muddling, and the results are a huge success!
Start with muddling the mint by itself using the muddling tool and a small bowl. I used about 40 leaves, which I muddled a few at a time. Then, I added 2 small ginger pieces and salt.
Muddle all the ingredients, add lemon juice, and add it to the cooked snap peas. Mix it gently and serve immediately
If you don’t have a muddling tool, use a mortar and pestle. I like using a (Affiliate Link) granite mortar and pestle, which is very cheap at Amazon.
A food processor will work too, just in case you don’t want to use the muddling tool or the mortar.
🔨 Muddling Tip: To bring out the best flavors of mint, always muddle it.
Try these other peas recipes
💌 Sharing is caring
Don’t be shy, chime in below in the comments. Let me hear your opinion on this recipe. If you enjoyed this, please give it 5 stars and share it on Facebook, Pinterest, Twitter, and Instagram.
Sauteed Sugar Snap Peas Recipe
Equipment
- Muddler
Ingredients
For the Mint Mixture
- 40 leaves fresh mint just the leaves, discard the stems
- 1 Tbsp extra virgin olive oil
- small ginger 2 small pieces, each about the size of a quarter
- 1/2 tsp pink himalayan salt use regular salt if you don't have pink salt
- 1.5 tsp lemon juice
For the Snap Peas
- 1.5 Tbsp extra virgin olive oil or you can sub with avocado oil
- 16 oz sugar snap peas I bought two 8 oz microwave ready sugar snap peas bags
Instructions
Preare the Mint Mixture
- In a small bowl, start by muddling about 5 leaves and salt
- Keep the muddled mint in the bowl and add 5 more mint leaves, plus a little of the oil
- Muddle those and continue the same process until all the leaves and oil is used up
- Add the two pieces of ginger to the mint
- Muddle the ginger and add the lime juice
- Set it aside
Prepare the Sugar Snap Peas
- Heat a wok on medium heat for 30 seconds
- Add the oil and heat for another 30 seconds
- Gently put the sugar snap peas in the oil
- Saute them on both sides (3 minutes per side)
- Add the mint mixture and mix well
- Turn off heat and let it sit on the stove for about a minute
- Serve immediately
Notes
Nutrition
Version 1
From time to time, I will go through old recipes to update the content. Sometimes, I update just the images and sometimes, I give the recipe a complete makeover.
This time, the recipe remained the same. What I changed was the text in the blog. I made it easier to read by adding appropriate headlines and breaking up some big sections. Let me know what you think of this new format.
Click here to see the original post.
I grew up eating sugar snow peas cooked with potatoes (boiled) with drop dumplings on top. I can still taste this! Also ate them raw right in the garden.
Thank you, Regina. I love snap peas with potatoes and agree that they taste good raw.
I love sugar snap peas (and their cousin English Peas). I snap on the raw when I can find them at the Farmer’s Market! This recipe sounds delish! I’ll be making it soon!
Thank you so much, Debi. It took a long time for me to like sugar snap peas, but, I am glad I have developed a taste for it now.