Stir-Fry Sugar Snap Peas

This sugar snap peas stir fry recipe is an easy side dish recipe from a cookbook called Feeding the Dragon: A Culinary Travelogue Through China with Recipes, written by brother and sister team Mary Kate and Nate Tate.

They lived, studied and worked in China for several years and have written about their travels and the wonderful Chinese food and Chinese cooking they learned about along the way.

You can find our review of the cookbook here.

This is a wonderful vegetable side dish recipe, perfect obviously for any Chinese recipes you make, but also great with grilled chicken, steak or fish.

I love snap peas. Wok cooking is so quick that it keeps their crunchy texture when you stir fry them. The wok also brings out their natural sweetness.

This is a wonderfully colorful side dish recipe, with the carrot sticks and garlic mixed with the snap peas.

You can easily interchange the peas with snow peas if you wish. Either would work perfectly in this dish.

I thing you will love this one.

Stir-Fry Sugar Snap Peas

Prep time: 5 minutes

Cook time: 5 minutes

2 teaspoons vegetable oil
4 cloves garlic, thinly sliced
1 pound sugar snap peas, trimmed
1 medium carrot, peeled and slivered into 3-inch lengths
2 tablespoons Shaoxing rice wine or dry sherry
1/2 teaspoon salt

Heat the oil in a wok over high heat.

Add the garlic and stir-fry for 10 seconds. Add the peas and stir-fry for 1 minute. Add the carrot, rice wine, and salt and stir-fry for about 2 minutes, until the peas are soft yet still crunchy and bright green.

Serve immediately.

• Make sure the wok is heated to quite hot. The vegetables won't absorb the oil if it is well heated before you cook them.
• Use either snap peas or snow peas in this recipe. Each works equally well. The snow peas may take just a bit less time to cook.
• Sneak in a few other vegetables to make it a full out vegetable stir fry recipe. It would make a great vegetarian dinner recipe over brown rice or noodles or alongside this fantastic spicy tofu with vegetables.

Serves 4.