Recipe: Green Peas With Spring Onion And Thyme
Fresh green peas are one of the joys of summer gardening.
The English or green peas are about finished in my garden. They took a long time with the dry and hot days, not pea-friendly weather at all. Once they started, they were steady and fairly prolific. They’ve been a joy to eat, sweet and crisp, and I’m sad to see them go. Often peas don’t make it out of the garden as they’re a grower’s sneaky treat, a reward for all that weeding.
I’ve been adding peas to various dishes besides just cooking them simply and they make everything more delicious. I simmered them with the asparagus that made up a quinoa tabbouleh-type salad and I added a big handful to the potato and sweet onion soup that was our dinner the other night. I dropped them in raw and let the residual heat of the soup cook them to a perfect texture. That’s the thing — you don’t want to overcook these tender peas or they get hard and mealy. Then all your gardening and fussing goes to naught.
This is a fairly straightforward pea recipe. Just peas and the sweet onions I grow. You can use knobby onions, regular sweet onions or scallions. They’re simmered together in butter with a bit of fresh thyme until the peas are tender. Nothing’s better, even in these first days of summer.
Green Peas with Sweet Onion and Thyme
Makes 2 servings
2 tablespoons unsalted butter
1 medium-size sweet knobby garden onion or 3 scallions, thinly sliced, with some of the greens (about ¾ cup)
1 ½ teaspoons chopped fresh thyme
Kosher salt
1 cup shelled fresh green peas (from about ¾ pound unshelled)
1. Melt the butter in a heavy medium saucepan over medium heat and stir in the onion or scallions and the thyme. Sprinkle with a pinch of salt and cook, stirring often, until tender, 2 to 3 minutes.
2. Add the peas and 3 tablespoons water. Stir well, reduce the heat to low, cover and simmer until the peas are tender 3 to 4 minutes.
3. Remove from the heat and season to taste with salt. Serve hot.
