Buttered Sugar Snap Peas with Mint

The newest pea, bred in Idaho in 1979, blanched briefly and tossed in butter with lemon and fresh mint until bright, crisp, and sweet

Origin: Idaho, United States

From the journey of Pea.

The sugar snap pea is the newest member of one of humanity's oldest cultivated families, and it has a precise birthday. In 1979, in Twin Falls, Idaho, the plant breeder Calvin Lamborn, working for the Gallatin Valley Seed Company, released the first true snap pea, the result of crossing a flat snow pea with a rare thick-podded shelling pea. He had been asked to straighten the twisted pods of the snow pea, and in the attempt he created something entirely new: a pea with a plump, rounded, crisp, completely edible pod and sweet peas within, bred from the outset to be eaten whole, raw or barely cooked. Released as the 'Sugar Snap' and an instant winner of an All-America Selections award, it became within a generation a fixture of fresh produce aisles around the world. Where the ancient peas of this journey were dried for keeping or shelled for cooking, the sugar snap is the pea reinvented for the age of the salad bar: a vegetable to be snapped and eaten out of hand, dipped raw, or given the briefest possible cooking so that it keeps its emphatic crunch and its remarkable sweetness. The kindest treatment is the simplest. A quick blanch or flash in the pan, a little good butter, a squeeze of lemon, flaky salt, and a scatter of torn fresh mint, whose cool sweetness has partnered the pea since antiquity, is all it needs. It is a dish of seconds rather than hours, and a fitting modern coda to the pea's ten-thousand-year story: the same plant that fed the first farmers of the Fertile Crescent, bred at last to be eaten crisp, green, and raw.

Ingredients

Peas

500 g sugar snap peas, strings pulled off

Dressing

30 g butter
1 piece garlic clove, finely sliced (optional)
0.5 piece lemon, zest and a squeeze of juice

Finishing

2 tbsp fresh mint leaves, torn

Seasoning

0.5 tsp flaky sea salt, or to taste
0.25 tsp freshly ground black pepper

Method

Pull the tough string from the seam of each sugar snap pod. Bring a pan of salted water to the boil and prepare a bowl of iced water.
Blanch the sugar snaps in the boiling water for just 1 to 2 minutes, until vivid green and barely tender but still very crisp. Drain at once and plunge into the iced water to stop the cooking and set the colour.
Melt the butter in a wide pan over a medium heat. If using garlic, add it and cook for under a minute until just fragrant, not coloured.
Add the drained sugar snaps and toss in the hot butter for 1 minute, just to coat and warm through. Add the lemon zest and a squeeze of juice.
Off the heat, season with flaky salt and pepper and toss through the torn mint. Tip onto a warm plate and serve at once.

Notes

Sugar snaps are also superb completely raw, strung and served with a dip, or shaved thin into a salad. Snow peas (mangetout) can be treated exactly the same way, with even less cooking. A little chopped chilli, toasted sesame, or grated Parmesan are all happy additions, though the butter, lemon, and mint version is hard to beat.

The Gastrographer

Name: Buttered Sugar Snap Peas with Mint
Prep time: 10 min
Cook time: 5 min
Total time: 15 min
Yield: 4
Cuisine: United States
Ingredients: 500 g sugar snap peas, strings pulled off; 30 g butter; 1 piece garlic clove, finely sliced (optional); 0.5 piece lemon, zest and a squeeze of juice; 2 tbsp fresh mint leaves, torn; 0.5 tsp flaky sea salt, or to taste; 0.25 tsp freshly ground black pepper

Mapping Culinary History

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Journey Point Map Key

Ingredient originTrade or transit route

Became a culinary stapleColonial / trade control