sugar snap pea salad with radishes, feta and arugula

This sugar snap pea salad is crisp, crunchy and bursting with flavor. I toss this salad with a lemony dressing that has just a hint of garlic and a bite of dijon mustard and vinegar. The dressing is a beautiful foil to the sweet snap peas and bitter arugula.

Salty crumbles of feta add richness to the snap pea salad, though feel free to substitute fresh goat cheese or ricotta salata if that’s what you’ve got. 

This simple salad is an easy and delicious way to celebrate fresh sugar snap peas and the height of Spring produce. 

how to string sugar snap peas

Hold the sugar snap pea so the curved edge is facing you. Use your fingers or a paring knife to snap off one small end of the pea, then slowly pull the string towards you along the curved edge. Repeat the process from the other end. Discard strings and use snap peas as desired.

fun fact: stringless sugar snap peas exist!

They range from almost stringless to virtually stringless to truly stringless. So if you keep trying to string your snap peas and almost nothing comes off, you’re in luck! Chances are you have one of these stringless varieties.

You can also just eat one. If there’s no tough, annoying, fibrous string in the pea, it's stringless! You can simply move on to the rest of the recipe.

can this sugar snap pea salad be made ahead?

Yes! You can chop the sugar snap peas, slice the radishes, and combine them with the feta and arugula up to 8 hours in advance. You can also make the dressing up to 3 days ahead of time. Store the assembled salad in a covered container in the refrigerator until you’re ready to eat.

The arugula and sliced radishes will wilt after about 20 minutes in the dressing, so it’s best to toss the snap pea salad in the dressing just before serving. 

what to drink with a sugar snap pea salad:

This is a fairly herbaceous and vegetal dish. Arugula can have a strong flavor and sugar snap peas, though sweet, also have a vegetal quality that is hard to pair with wine.

Salads are also notoriously hard to pair with wine because of their dressing. The acid in the dressing (vinegar and lemon juice) can be stronger than the acid in the wine. This will cause the wine to taste flat and unbalanced. 

There are two main elements to focus on: vegetal flavors and acid levels.

In this situation, I prefer to find wines with a similar herbaceous quality to complement the sugar snap pea salad. I also want to look for a wine with pretty high levels of acid, so that it can stand up to the bright, lemony dressing.

Sauvignon Blanc from cool climates can give us both of these qualities, with delicious results. Look for the following regions:

• Marlborough, New Zealand
• Loire Valley, France (specifically Sancerre, Pouilly Fume, Quincy or Reuilly)
• Casablanca and San Antonio Valley, Chile
• North Coast, California (such as Mendocino)

Other interesting pairings would be Gruner Veltliner, Verdejo or Vinho Verde. Give them all a try!

Just remember: there’s no bad pairing when you eat what you like and drink what you like.

related recipes:

fava bean panzanella with cucumber and feta

buffalo chicken salad recipe

fried halloumi salad

butter lettuce salad with pecorino breadcrumbs

farro bowl with spring peas and asparagus

arugula fennel salad with pickled cherries and burrata

butter lettuce and creamy pistachio wedge salad

Make it a meal! Serve this salad with a delicious chicken caprese sandwich!

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