It’s such a nice variation on eating them raw, and it’s a simple side dish that you can make in just 20 minutes! This is one of my favorite side dishes to make on a busy weeknight. It’s so incredibly fast and easy, and cooking vegetables in butter and garlic is always delicious. I’m too lazy to wash and trim sugar snap peas and remove their string, so I usually buy them stringless and ready to eat, which truly makes this a 10-minute dish. But even if you prep them yourself, this is not a difficult recipe to make.
Ingredients
You’ll only need a few simple ingredients to make this tasty side dish. The exact measurements are listed in the recipe card below. Here’s an overview of what you’ll need:
Butter: Yum! Need I say more? It’s delicious, but it does have a relatively low smoke point. If it seems to be browning too much, you can lower the heat to medium.Stringless sugar snap peas: I make life easy and get bags of them already trimmed and stringless.seasonings: For this simple everyday recipe, I simply use kosher salt, freshly ground black pepper, garlic powder, and onion powder.
Instructions
This is actually one of my easiest recipes, especially when I use bagged sugar snap peas. Scroll down to the recipe card below for detailed instructions. Here are the basic steps:
You start by heating the butter in a skillet.Next, add the peas to the skillet. Cook them, stirring, for a minute or so, then add the seasonings.Keep cooking until the peas are tender-crisp. They should still be bright green, and only browned in a few stops, from the brown butter.That’s it! Remove them from the heat as soon as they are done.
Expert tip
It’s really important not to overcook the peas. While this is true for many vegetables, it’s especially true here. 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 then remove the pods from the pan onto a plate so that they don’t keep cooking in the pan’s residual heat.
Frequently asked questions
Variations
I love this recipe as is and almost always make it as written. But in case you’d like to vary the basic recipe, here are a few ideas for you:
You can definitely use fresh minced garlic instead of garlic powder.You can cook the peas in olive oil instead of butter, but lower the heat to medium if it gets too hot. You don’t want it to smoke.Enjoy spicy food? Try adding a pinch of cayenne pepper when you add the other seasonings.Try sprinkling the finished dish with bacon bits and/ or grated parmesan.
Serving suggestions
This side dish is very versatile and can go with almost any main dish. I often serve it with blackened chicken, meatloaf, or baked scallops. But you can truly serve it with any main dish you’d like!
Storing leftovers
If you have leftovers, you can keep them in the fridge in a sealed container for 3-4 days. Reheat them gently in the microwave at 50% power. They won’t be as good as fresh - some of the crispiness will be lost - but they should still be very good.
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