Snap Peas Healthy Food Guide

Peak season: Mid-Spring to Early Summer

Recipe shown above: Snap Pea Salad with Radish & Lime

How luscious lies the pea within the pod...

—Emily Dickinson

You’ve probably never heard of Calvin Lamborn. But he’s the guy who made sugar snap peas so sweet and succulent that you want to eat them raw. Though edible-podded peas have been enjoyed for hundreds of years, Lamborn accidentally developed snap peas in the late 1960s while breeding shell peas. Though sugar snap peas are a cultivar of snap peas, you’ll most likely see them called “sugar snap peas” at the grocery store.

Tasty raw, snap peas add color and crunch to salads. Or try roasting them to caramelize their sugars. Sugar snap peas also stand up well to a light sauté, making them a favorite addition to stir-fries. Enjoy a delightful herald of early summer tonight with one of these snappy dishes.

What you get

A 1-cup serving of the versatile vegetable gives you one-third of your Daily Value of vitamin C and 3 grams fiber.

Tips

Shopping Tips: Sugar snap peas (a.k.a. “snap peas”) should be plump and bright green in color.; They have a woody stem on one end of the pod that needs to be trimmed before eating and fibrous strings along the sides. To remove the stem and strings at the same time, hold the stem between your thumb and index finger, snap and pull down (see technique photo). Or look for bags of already trimmed “stringless” sugar snap peas in the prepared-vegetable section.; One pound snap peas equals about 4 cups.