Miso-Glazed Snap Peas with Horseradish “Snow”

2012-04-24

Cuisine: Asian
Course: Dinner, Lunch
Skill Level: Easy

Miso-Glazed Snap Peas with Horseradish "Snow" | Plant-Based on a Budget | #snappeas #asian #appetizer #sidedish #radish #plantbasedonabudget

Servings : 2-4
Prep Time : 10m
Cook Time : 5m
Ready In : 15m

One of my favorite cookbooks is David Chang’s “Momofuku.” Though Chang’s known as Mr. Pork (and a lot of the recipes in the book are admittedly a little pork-heavy), “Momofuku” has a bunch of fantastic vegetable and vegetable-based recipes, one of which this dish is adapted from.

Inspired by the “wasabi peas” you see pretty much everywhere, this is a tasty and super-quick side (or, served over rice, a decent-sized lunch). Miso’s a terrific way to add savory depth to dishes, and food-processing the horseradish into “snow” gives you a pretty good horseradish-to-pea ratio. If you can’t find miso, you can use a cup of vegetable broth reduced to a half cup (around 5 minutes over high heat), and the radishes are totally optional – they’re mostly there for color and a little crunch. (Julienned carrots would be good on there, too.)

Miso-Glazed Snap Peas: Perfect Light Appetizer

This simple Momofuku-inspired dish is a perfect appetizer for a night in with friends. It’s quick to make, yet fun enough to be eaten with chopsticks for a restaurant feel. Since this dish has such strong flavors, it would also be great if served over plain brown or white rice. The delicious juices from the marinade would blend with the rice so well.

Another thing about this recipe that makes it versatile is that you can add any shredded, grated or sliced veggies you like for variety. Carrots, cucumbers, zucchinis, beets or basically any “grateable” veggies you have on hand or are in season. The same goes for sauces and spices. Get creative and make this dish your own! Too spicy? Add less horseradish. We admit that horseradish takes some time to get used to but it adds such an amazing flavor to preparations. Give it a try!

Equipment used in this recipe:

Ingredients

1 pound of sugar snap peas
1/4 cup of finely grated fresh horseradish (I highly recommend a Microplane grater)
1 tablespoon of shiro (white) miso
1/2 cup of water
3 small radishes, trimmed and sliced as thinly as possible (I used a mandoline)
1 tablespoon of soy sauce
Kosher salt and black pepper

Method

Step 1

Put the finely grated horseradish in a plastic bag and put it in the freezer.

Step 2

Put the sliced radishes in a small strainer and toss with a few pinches of salt. Set aside.

Step 3

Put the water and miso in a saute pan or skillet and bring to a boil over high heat, stirring to dissolve the miso.

Step 4

When the miso mixture is boiling, add the snap peas and cook, stirring often, until the peas are bright green, around 2 minutes. Reduce the heat to medium and add the soy sauce, stirring until the peas are well coated with the liquid, another minute. Remove from heat.

Step 5

Put the now-frozen horseradish in a food processor (if you have a mini-prep one, use that), and whizz it until the horseradish is super-finely ground. (Be careful not to overdo it, or the horseradish will get all clumpy.)

Step 6

Put the snap peas and their broth in a bowl, top with the radishes (you may want to blot them dry if they're super wet), add a few turns of black pepper (and salt if you feel like it's necessary but given the salted radishes and the fact that miso's pretty salty to begin with, you should probably taste before adding additional salt), top with the horseradish, and serve immediately or at room temperature.