By: Colleen

My favorite kind of dinner is the simplest kind of dinner, and right now, as we’re approaching the solstice, that means cooking as little as possible. And it also means as few dishes as possible, preferably ones that are easily rinsed clean. I recently came across a

recipe for blistered snap peas

and while it’s definitely summer on my side of things, it’s not *that* hot quite yet so I tried it with regular English peas in their pods (a first!) and blistered them in a screaming hot skillet with some olive oil.

It turns out, cooking the peas in their pods until the pods soften and blister, then shaking them out of their pods with a little lemon and salt is an incredibly low-effort, incredibly high-reward maneuver. It feels like magic. Each pea is perfectly, gently cooked (they have a tendency to get too soft too quickly when cooked without their pods, a mistake I’ve made for years now) and the flavor of the pod seems to infuse them with an even more pea-like, fresh, green essence. The salt and lemon finish is just perfect. We’ve been having them as a side with

this shrimp

or

chicken

or

this chickpea situation

or just

with buttered toast

for dinner, just the peas and toast because the peas feel that complete.

It takes about 10 minutes to cook a batch of peas, and less than that to shuck them directly into a serving bowl. This is what you’re looking for in terms of doneness:

And then you’re just going to squeeze them gently and the peas inside will just fall out:

One caveat: this really only works with English peas (the ones with the round, slightly tough pods) because you’re discarding the pods. Snap peas (the ones with flatter, crisp pods that you eat whole) are usually too small to make this work well, plus you’re meant to eat the pods anyway. I suppose you could do it if you preferred them this way but I’d still err on the side of using the biggest, plumpest sugar snap peas you can find for this purpose.

And with that, I’ll be back on Friday with a (cold!) dessert to get us through the rest of the week. Hope your week is off to a wonderful start.

Blistered Peas in the Pod with Lemon and Salt

Yield

4


servings

Prep time

10


minutes

Cook time

10


minutes

Ingredients

1


pound


English peas in the pod

1


tablespoon


olive oil

1/2


lemon

, cut into wedges

1/4


teaspoon


flaky sea salt

, or more to taste

Instructions

Heat a large (10- to 12-inch) heavy-bottomed skillet over high heat for 3 to 5 minutes, until screaming hot. Add peas and olive oil and toss to coat. Cook, undisturbed, for 2 to 3 minutes until peas on one side are beginning to blister and char lightly. Toss, and repeat until most of the pods are blistered in places and bright green. This will take 5 to 7 minutes total.

Transfer peas to a bowl. When cool enough to handle, shuck peas from their pods by gently squeezing the pods over a serving bowl. Discard pods. Squeeze lemon juice over peas and shower with salt. Toss to combine and serve warm or at room temperature.

Notes

Do ahead

: Peas can be cooked ahead and kept in a sealed container in the fridge for up to 3 days. Reheat gently in a dry skillet or microwave until warm.

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