Snap Pea and Radish Crunch Salad
Raw snap peas cut on a long diagonal with radish coins sliced almost translucent, dressed in sesame oil, ginger and cider vinegar and showered with toasted sesame seeds.
Why You'll Love This Recipe
This is the bowl for the week when everything you have eaten has been soft. Raw snap peas cut on a long diagonal, radishes sliced into coins thin enough to see through, and a dressing that takes about as long as grating a knob of ginger. Fifteen minutes from board to table, and it sits beside almost any dinner you can name. Dress it at the last minute rather than in advance, since salt draws the water out of both vegetables and the crunch is the entire reason for making it.
Cutting the snap peas on a sharp diagonal is not for looks. It opens the pod, exposes the little peas inside and gives the dressing a way in, and it leaves each piece long enough to catch the sesame seeds. The radishes go the other direction, sliced paper thin, so every forkful has both long green crescents and flat pink coins in it. Pull the string down the seam of each pod before you cut, since it is the one part of a snap pea that will not soften and it comes away in a second.
The dressing stays sharp and thin on purpose. Toasted sesame oil, cider vinegar, coconut aminos and grated ginger, whisked and poured over at the last minute, coat the vegetables without softening them. Give this bowl half an hour of sitting and the salt draws the water out and the crunch is gone, so it gets made and eaten in that order. If you want it ready ahead, cut the vegetables and whisk the dressing separately and let them meet at the table.
Ingredients
- 14 oz snap peas, strings removed
- 10 radishes, sliced paper thin
- 3 scallions, thinly sliced
- 1 1/2 tbsp toasted sesame oil
- 2 tbsp sesame seeds
- 1 tbsp coconut aminos
- 2 tsp grated fresh ginger
- 1 tbsp apple cider vinegar
Instructions
- Toast the sesame seeds: Put the sesame seeds in a dry skillet over medium heat and stir constantly for 2 to 3 minutes, until they are golden and a few begin to jump in the pan. Tip them onto a plate at once. They carry a lot of oil and will keep browning long after you have walked away.
- String the pods: Snap the stem end of each pod backward and pull it down the straight seam to strip the string away. A pod with its string still on is the difference between a pleasant bite and a mouthful of floss. Discard any pod that is limp or yellowing.
- Cut on a long diagonal: Slice each pod on a long diagonal into two or three pieces, holding the knife at close to forty five degrees so the cut face is an oval rather than a circle. Drop them into a wide bowl as you work.
- Slice the radishes translucent: Trim the radishes and slice them into coins as thin as you can manage, ideally thin enough that light passes through. A mandoline is easiest, though a sharp knife and patience get there too. Add them to the pods along with the sliced scallions.
- Whisk the dressing: Whisk the sesame oil, cider vinegar, coconut aminos and grated ginger in a small bowl until it looks cloudy and slightly thickened. Grate the ginger on the fine side of a box grater so it dissolves into the dressing rather than turning up as fibers.
- Dress and serve immediately: Pour the dressing over the vegetables and toss with your hands so everything is lightly coated, then shower the toasted sesame seeds over the top. Serve within ten minutes. This is a salad you dress at the table, not one you make ahead.
Variations
- Add cucumber: Thin cucumber half moons make it cooler and juicier and stretch the bowl to feed six.
- Napa slaw: A few handfuls of shredded napa cabbage bulk it out into something closer to a slaw.
- Citrus dressing: Lime juice where the cider vinegar goes takes the bowl brighter and more tropical.
- Chili crunch: A pinch of cayenne in the dressing and thin jalapeno rings in the bowl give it a slow building heat.
- Herb finish: Torn cilantro or thinly sliced basil over the top just before serving makes it taste like high summer.
Storage & Leftovers
This bowl wants eating the hour it is made. Dressed and left overnight, the salt in the coconut aminos pulls water out of the snap peas and radishes and you wake up to a puddle and soft vegetables. It is still perfectly edible, it is simply no longer a crunch salad.
The parts store beautifully apart. Cut snap peas and sliced radishes keep three days in separate sealed containers with a dry paper towel laid over the top to catch condensation. The dressing keeps two weeks in a jar in the refrigerator and only needs a shake.
Toasted sesame seeds keep about a month in a jar at room temperature and give up their aroma slowly after that. Having them ready in advance turns this into a five minute salad on any weeknight, which is the only way it actually gets made.
Notes & Tips
- String every pod: One missed string ruins an otherwise perfect mouthful.
- Forty five degrees: A long diagonal cut opens the pod and gives the dressing somewhere to go.
- Radishes as thin as you can: Thick coins taste hot and woody; paper thin ones taste sweet and crisp.
- Watch the sesame seeds: They go from golden to bitter in about twenty seconds, so stay at the pan.
- Grate the ginger fine: The fine side of the grater turns ginger into juice; the coarse side turns it into strings in your teeth.
- Dress at the last second: Ten minutes is the window before the salt starts pulling water out of the vegetables.
Nutrition & Mindful Eating
- Snap peas, radish and sesame give you three different kinds of crunch in one bowl. The pods are sweet and green, the radish coins are sharp and watery, and the toasted seeds tie the two together with fat and a nutty warmth.
- Snap peas eaten raw, pod and all, keep the vitamin C that a pot of boiling water would carry off, and the pod itself is where most of the fiber sits. That is why a bowl of these chews for so long and settles so well.
- Radishes sliced almost translucent taste sweeter and gentler than a thick coin does, and the mustard oils behind their bite are the same family of compounds that runs through their cabbage relatives. Cold and wet, they are the refreshing part of every forkful.
- Toasted sesame oil is the loudest thing in the dressing and very little goes a long way, dark and nutty and smelling of the pan it came from. Whisked with cider vinegar and grated ginger it clings to the waxy pods rather than pooling at the bottom.
- Ginger grated fine disappears into the dressing and shows up as a warm sting at the back of the throat, arriving just after the vinegar. It is the note that makes this bowl taste deliberate rather than thrown together.
- As you eat, listen to the first forkful, because this is a bowl you can hear, and notice how quickly the ginger warms your throat after the cold radish before you go back in for more.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can I use snow peas?
Yes, and they are excellent, though they behave differently. Snow peas are flatter and more delicate so they want a lighter hand with the dressing, and they are better sliced lengthwise into strips than cut on the diagonal. Sugar snaps give you more of a pop.
The dressing slid to the bottom of the bowl.
Snap peas are waxy outside and dressing beads up and runs off them. Two fixes. Toss with your hands rather than tongs so you are genuinely rubbing it in, and cut more of the pods open on the diagonal so the dressing has interior surfaces to cling to.
Can I take this to a picnic?
Carry the vegetables in one container, the dressing in a jar and the sesame seeds in a twist of foil, then combine on arrival. It takes thirty seconds once you are there and it is the only way this bowl arrives crisp.
Is this all plant food?
Yes. Snap peas, radish, scallion, ginger, sesame oil, sesame seeds, cider vinegar, and coconut aminos, every bit of it grown. It does contain sesame, which is worth saying out loud if you are carrying it somewhere.