Peas with Lemon

This peas recipe takes just 5 minutes! Cooking frozen peas with garlic and lemon makes an easy side dish everyone will love.

Shh, we have a secret. Frozen peas can taste amazing in 5 minutes. Yep, you can transform a bag of these frozen green spheres into an easy side dish that everyone around the table will love. (Promise!) The secret? A little olive oil, butter, garlic and lemon. That’s it! Alex and I made this recipe on a challenge: could we take a bag of frozen peas and make them into a delicious side dish? Turns out it’s not as hard as you would think.

Secrets to this peas recipe (how to cook frozen peas)

Alex and I don’t often cook with frozen vegetables. But we’ve been making lots of side dish recipes lately, and peas was a vegetable we wanted to master. Fresh green peas are hard to find, but frozen peas are available year round. Peas used to have an image as one of those scary vegetables. “Eat your peas!” was a common phrase shouted by parents as I was growing up. But here’s what we did to transform a bag of frozen peas into a delightful, delicious side dish (or go right to the recipe)

• Start with 2 cups frozen peas.
• Heat 1 tablespoon each butter and olive oil in a skillet.
• Add the peas and 2 smashed garlic cloves. Cook just 2 minutes.
• Season with kosher salt and add lemon zest.

The Italian-style flavors transform a boring bag of peas into something beautifully delicious and fresh! Not scary at all. In fact: they’re hard to stop eating!

Are frozen peas already cooked?

Yes! The frozen vegetables you’ll find in the grocery store cooked in water or steam before they are frozen and packaged. This means that many frozen vegetables can simply be thawed before eating. This is true for frozen peas, which can simply be defrosted and used in salads. You can also saute them quickly before serving, like in this peas recipe.

Most cooks’ mistake: overcooking the peas.

The cook time for this peas recipe is just 2 minutes! Because the frozen peas are already cooked, you want to make sure not to over-cook them. Many home cooks make the mistake of cooking peas too long, so they become mushy and greenish brown. (That’s where the term pea green comes from!) To keep them bright green, saute them just 2 minutes until they’re warm.

A peas recipe with whole garlic cloves (remove before serving!)

This green peas recipe uses whole peeled garlic cloves that you’ll cook in a skillet with the peas. Why add whole cloves and not minced? Well, cooking vegetables with whole cloves infuses a subtle garlic flavor. Adding minced garlic brings a big garlicky flavor, but whole cloves bring the essence of garlic as a hint of flavor. Make sure to remove the garlic cloves when you’re done, and discard them! Because they’re not sauteed, they’re not good to eat.

Peas fun facts

Why eat your peas? Well, lots of reasons! Here’s a bit more info about these healthy green veggies:

• They’re part of the legume family, like chickpeas and lentils. But they’re more often eaten as a starchy vegetable (like corn or potatoes).
• They are high in plant-based protein. ½ cup of peas has 4 grams of plant based protein. The calorie count is also fairly low: 62 calories for the same amount. (Source)
• Are fresh peas better in recipes than frozen? According to Epicurious, fresh peas aren’t as tasty cooked! Frozen hold up better in recipes and have all the same nutrients.

More amazing vegetable side dishes

This peas recipe is a whole food plant based side dish (WFPB) that compliments just about any meal. It’s also one a list of ways to make vegetables into 5-star side dishes! Here are some of our other favorite vegetable side dishes:

• Best Ever Sauteed Mushrooms or Roasted Mushrooms Here are THE perfect sauteed mushrooms, with best savory flavor from lemon and fresh herbs.
• Sauteed Rainbow Chard Top this leafy green with Parmesan and pine nuts and it’s outstanding.
• Sauteed Spinach (That Tastes Amazing) Guaranteed to make eating your greens taste amazing! In just 10 minutes, too.
• Perfect Roasted Eggplant Baking eggplant until it’s tender makes for unreal flavor.
• Roasted Carrots Roast up carrots until tender with lemon wedges and fresh thyme, and they taste incredible.
• Easy Baked Asparagus Here the green stalks are roasted until tender, spritzed with lemon & topped with Parmesan.
• Simple Sauteed Broccoli Make your broccoli taste amazing in just 10 minutes: it comes out perfectly crisp tender!
• Lemon Herb Steamed Cauliflower Cooks in minutes and is so tasty, it’s life changing.

Want more with lemon? Try these 15 Zesty Lemon Recipes.

This peas recipe is…

Vegetarian, plant-based and gluten-free. For vegan and dairy-free, substitute vegan butter, refined coconut oil or more olive oil. 

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