Healthy Snap Pea Recipes

Be sure to let these sugar snap peas get some at-the-edge-of-burnt color in the skillet. It's the secret to the knockout flavor of this easy and healthy side dish.

Tofu, rice and vegetables are classic bento ingredients. Make extra rice for dinner and roll leftovers into balls for lunch. To keep green veggies vibrant and crisp, cook them briefly and immediately dunk them into a bowl of ice water. You can also use cubed store-bought baked tofu in place of the roasted tofu.

The piquant Sichuan Sauce (which doubles easily) works well with almost any stir-fry but particularly enhances dishes with meat, fish and poultry. When stir-frying chicken, always spread the pieces in the wok and let them cook undisturbed for 1 minute before stirring. This allows the chicken to sear and prevents sticking. To smash the ginger, use the side of a cleaver or chef's knife.

This quick and healthy dinner pairs creamy tofu and crispy snap peas with a tahini-maple sauce. Make it a meal: Serve with udon noodles and Green Tea-Poached Pears for dessert.

Try this colorful pasta salad, full of crunchy snap peas and juicy tomatoes, at your next summer potluck.

Take your veggies and dip to the next level with this colorful crudité wreath. This vegetable appetizer is a stunner with white cauliflower, red tomatoes and green broccoli, green beans, snap peas, kale and Brussels sprouts. It's also a delicious way to start your celebration with veggies (which there are rarely enough of at parties and holidays). The homemade ranch dip, which uses nonfat Greek yogurt in place of sour cream, takes just a few minutes to make, or you can use a healthy store-bought dip.

Pressing tofu before making this tofu stir-fry recipe gives it a chewy, satisfying texture. Three green peas--sugar snaps, snow peas and shelling peas--balance it out with brightly flavored crunch. Hoisin--a dark brown, thick, spicy-sweet sauce made from soybeans and a complex mix of spices--gives the stir-fry rich depth of flavor with just one ingredient. Look for it, as well as chile-garlic sauce, in the Asian section of the market.

Fresh greens, lemony vinaigrette, briny feta, and crisp radishes and pea pods all come together in this side salad that you'll want at every meal. We love Meyer lemons in this salad, but any variety will do.

Fresh asparagus and sugar snap peas are quickly stir-fried with Asian-style seasonings for a quick and elegant vegetable side dish.

Tender cauliflower gnocchi combine with a quick cream sauce, tender peas and flaky salmon for an unforgettable weeknight dinner. This one is so good you might make it for special occasions. If you don't like smoked salmon, use fresh.

This healthy rice salad is loaded with vegetables and protein. Serve it as a healthy dinner or pack it up and take it along for your next picnic. Bhutanese red rice has a nutty taste and pleasant chewy texture, but any type of whole-grain rice tastes great in this hearty salad recipe. Check package directions: depending on the variety, red rice cooks for 20 to 50 minutes.

Leftover chicken and frozen veggies make this whole-grain peanut noodle recipe quick and easy.

This pretty slaw recipe is a celebration of spring produce. The celery seed in the recipe is inspired by traditional Texas-style coleslaw, while the snap peas and radishes stand in for cabbage. Serve this healthy side dish with grilled or roasted chicken and new potato salad for a fresh dinner.

Serve this lightly spicy, colorful vegetable side recipe with grilled shrimp or salmon. You can also use snow peas or a mix of the two.

A light and summery snap pea-and-fennel slaw makes a crisp bed for the seared salmon in this healthy dinner recipe. The delicate fennel fronds add more mild licorice flavor to the dish.

Like a bouquet of fresh vegetables, this light but soothing soup is just the thing on a cool spring evening. It is important to cut the green vegetables into small pieces so they cook quickly, while retaining their bright color.

Salmon and eggplant team up in this one-skillet curry flavored with coconut milk, basil and lime. We love the flavor of Thai yellow curry paste in this dish, but any type of curry paste can be used--be sure to taste as you go because curry blends vary in flavor and heat. If you don't have curry paste, curry powder works well here. Serve with fragrant brown rice, such as basmati or jasmine.

Quick-cooking chicken cutlets are paired with an elegant but easy light sauce of sugar snap peas and artichoke hearts. This dish can be made without the sprouted beans, but is especially delicious with them--if you have extras, try them on a salad.

This Asian-inspired chicken dinner salad recipe has terrific crunch, thanks to sugar snap peas and napa cabbage. The orange dressing gets a kick of heat from sambal oelek, an Indonesian hot sauce. If you can't find it, try sriracha in its place.

You get two sides in one with this dish--whole-grain barley along with crisp matchsticks of vitamin- and fiber-rich snap peas. Serve with roasted or grilled salmon or chicken.

You can use most types of barley for this veggie-loaded grain salad--hulled, pearled (which will cook the quickest) or hull-less. Serve this salad as a side for grilled chicken, topped with grilled shrimp or as an impressive potluck dish.

Fragrant with fresh mint, this one-pot side dish will have everyone thinking spring.

Chicken thighs are seasoned with Asian-style seasonings, then slow-cooked to tenderness and served with crisp sugar snap peas.

This dish is best done at the last minute so the snap peas keep their crisp texture. The pink of the shrimp and the green peas make it as pretty as it is tasty.