Sweet Onion Recipes - Sweet Onion and Sugar Snap Pea Salad

Sweet Onion and Sugar Snap Pea Salad
with Toasted Sesame Seeds

Kids love sugar snap peas because they're sweet and they're crunchy. A natural thing to pair up with another sweet and crunchy vegetable, the sweet onion. Trust me, your kids and friends of all ages will scarf down this delicious offering.

1 pound fresh sugar snap peas
1 sweet onion, halved through its stem to root end, then sliced into half-rings
sesame oil
light salad oil
1/4 cup toasted sesame seeds
2 teaspoons commercially prepared teriyaki sauce
fresh cilantro, minced
finely minced fresh ginger
1 tablespoon Oriental vinegar

Pare away the stem end from each sugar snap pea. I like to serve them raw, but if desired, you can blanch them briefly: place the peas in a large colander, then pour about 2 quarts of boiling water over them to just barely blanch the peas. Plunge the peas in cold water to set the color and stop the cooking, drain well and chill.

To assemble the salad, toss the peas and the sweet onions with a few spoons of sesame oil and light salad oil, then toss with the sesame seeds, teriyaki sauce, cilantro to taste (it depends on how much you like the flavor, start with a tablespoon, but you could use considerably more, if desired), and ginger. Just before serving, toss with the vinegar (You don't want to add the vinegar too soon or the acid will alter the beautiful color of the peas; coating them with oil first helps to delay the reaction).