Anne Burrell's Clean Tip For Slicing Sugar Snap Peas
You have to love a vegetable you can eat raw, straight out of the bag — or even right off the plant if you've got the opportunity. No-cook veggies are a convenient addition to vegetable platters, kids' lunch boxes, and snack time any time. And sugar snap peas fit the bill.
Foodprint explains that in French, sugar snap peas are called mangetout, which translates to "eat it all." The outlet adds that you can even eat the peas' young shoots for a healthy dose of fiber, vitamins A, C, and K, folate, iron, and manganese.
According to Produce Made Simple, sugar snap peas are a hybrid. Their parents are the garden or English pea, which you'll encounter canned or frozen and removed from its inedible pod, and the snow pea: flat, completely edible, and popular in Chinese takeout. But while sugar snaps offer the best of both worlds — a delectable pea within a delightfully crunchy pod — there are some varieties that ask for little prep work. Many recipes call for cooks to cut up sugar snap peas and deal with some of their botanical features for clean eating and presentation. If it's your first time working with these stringy veggies, chef and TV host Anne Burrell's got you covered.
Removing the string from sugar snap peas
In a Twitter video promoting "Worst Cooks in America," chef Anne Burrell makes a classic Sunday roast dinner featuring sugar snap peas. She demonstrates how the peas have a stringy line on either side of the pod, which you don't want to try to chomp on. She uses a paring knife to separate the string from the shell and carefully peels it off from one end of the pea all the way down and around to the other side, calling the process "so satisfying." Burrell then blanches and sautés the peas with bacon, keeping them whole in her final dish.
De-stringing sugar snap peas facilitates cutting them lengthwise or into thin pieces, allowing the plump peas to separate from the crisp pods. Pinch and Swirl writes that while you can cut them with a knife, it's much easier and faster to use the slicing blade of a food processor.
Martha Stewart explains that you can also break off the stem end of a sugar snap pea by hand and remove the attached string. Blue Apron has a YouTube video that illustrates the technique, explaining that what you're pulling out is the "membrane that runs between the layers" of the pea. You can clearly see the pointy top end of the pea with the two curling strings (one from either side) holding on. Real Simple adds that you should always de-string the pea with its curved side facing toward you for best results.
How to cook sugar snap peas
On that note, what are some recipes for these cool-season crops?
Foodprint recommends stir-fries, pickles, ferments, and crisps that preserve that incredible crunch. Ina Garten likes her sugar snap peas raw or blanched — they're simply stunning with sesame oil and black sesame seeds. Food Network's sugar snap peas with brown butter, lemon, and horseradish are ever-so-gently cooked. The New York Times' lemony sugar snap pea salad with radishes, mint, and ricotta salata will test your slicing skills with long, vertical bias cuts. And Martha Stewart's raw snap pea salad features fat, crosswise rounds.
Foodprint suggests buying organic snap peas when possible to avoid potential pesticide residue, and you should always select vibrantly-green peas with no blemishes or discoloration. With Burrell's tip and a wide variety of dishes to choose from, you'll be able to enjoy sugar snap peas on the regular — no strings attached.