In this easy everyday recipe, sugar snap peas are quickly sautéed in butter and garlic. This simple side dish is ready in ten minutes!
This snap peas recipe is one of my favorite side dishes to make on a busy weeknight. Cooking vegetables in butter and garlic is delicious (as these sauteed mushrooms demonstrate)! To make this recipe as easy as can be, I buy a bag of stringless, ready-to-eat peas. But even if you need to prep them, this is a truly quick and easy recipe and a delicious variation on eating them raw.
Ingredients and Variations
See the recipe card for exact measurements. Here are my comments on the ingredients.
- Butter: It's delicious but has a relatively low smoke point. Lower the heat to medium if it seems to be browning too much. Sometimes, I cook the peas in olive oil instead of butter.
- Sugar snap peas: I make life easy and get bags of trimmed and stringless peas.
- Seasonings: Kosher salt, freshly ground black pepper, garlic powder, and onion powder. You can use fresh minced garlic instead of garlic powder.
- Variation: I sometimes sprinkle the finished dish with bacon bits or grated Parmesan.
Instructions
The detailed instructions and step-by-step photos are included in the recipe card. Here's a quick overview.
Heat the butter in a large skillet. Add the peas. Cook them, stirring, for a minute or so, then add the seasonings.
Keep cooking until the peas are tender-crisp. They should be bright green and browned in only a few spots. Don't overcook them.
Remove them from the heat as soon as they are done and serve.
Recipe Tips
- It's important to avoid overcooking snap peas. While this is true for many vegetables, it's especially true here. This is the kind of vegetable that tastes best when barely cooked. The peas need no more than 2-3 minutes of cooking, so remove the pan from the heat as soon as the pods are tender-crisp. Once off the heat, immediately remove the pods from the pan onto a plate to prevent them from cooking in the pan's residual heat.
- You don't have to trim the peas' ends before cooking, but you should remove the string that runs down the middle of the pods since it is difficult to chew and digest. You can buy bags of stringless pods, and I often do that.
- Storage: You can keep the leftovers in a sealed container in the fridge for 3-4 days. Reheat them gently in the microwave at 50% power or snack on them cold like antipasti. You can also freeze the cooled leftovers for up to three months.
Serving Suggestions
This side dish is incredibly versatile and can go with almost any main dish. I often pair it with one of the following:
- Blackened chicken
- Keto meatloaf
- Pan-fried salmon
- Baked scallops
- Shrimp in cream sauce
- Keto-fried pork chops
- Pork meatballs, as shown in the photo below. I sprinkled the peas with extra garlic powder and added cherry tomatoes for color.
Recipe Card
Easy Sautéed Sugar Snap Peas
Video
Ingredients
- 1 tablespoon butter
- 8 ounces sugar snap peas - strings removed
- ½ teaspoon Diamond Crystal kosher salt - or ¼ teaspoon of any other salt, including Morton kosher salt
- ¼ teaspoon black pepper
- ½ teaspoon garlic powder
- ½ teaspoon onion powder
Instructions
- Heat the butter in a large skillet over medium-high heat until it starts to foam.
- Add the snap peas and stir-fry for 1 minute.
- Add the salt, pepper, garlic powder, and onion powder.
- Keep cooking, stirring constantly, until the pods are tender-crisp, about 2 more minutes.
- Immediately remove from the heat and serve.
Notes
- This is the kind of vegetable that tastes best when very minimally cooked. It truly needs no more than 2-3 minutes of cooking, so make sure to remove the pan from the heat as soon as the pods are tender-crisp and remove the pods from the pan onto a plate so that they don't keep cooking in the pan's residual heat.
- You don't have to trim the peas' ends before cooking them. But you should remove the string that runs down the middle of the pods since it is difficult to chew and digest. You can buy bags of stringless pods, as I often do.
- You can keep the leftovers in a sealed container in the fridge for 3-4 days. Reheat them gently in the microwave at 50% power, or enjoy them cold like antipasti. You can also freeze the cooled leftovers for up to three months.
Nutrition per Serving
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Disclaimers
Most recipes are low-carb and gluten-free, but some are not. Recommended and linked products are not guaranteed to be gluten-free. Nutrition info is approximate. Please verify it independently. The carb count excludes non-nutritive sweeteners. Please read these Terms of Use before using any of my recipes.
