Indian-Style Spiced Peas with Toasted Coconut Recipe on Food52 (2024)

Author Notes

This dish is best with the sweetest peas of early spring, straight from the garden, but frozen peas are still wonderful if you don't have a backyard vine. You can vary the amounts of either pea variety depending on your preference. I use frozen coconut from my local Indian grocery store (along with the whole seeds that I stock up on in bulk), but I'd love to try it with fresh -- I'm just not sure I'm ready to wrestle with a whole coconut, rolling across the kitchen counter. This dish is inspired by my dear friend, Saraswathi, who's my guru for South Indian-style cooking (my mother-in-law taught me the ways of the north). —Ann S

Test Kitchen Notes

Sweet soft English peas, crunchy sugar snaps, vegetal wilted spinach, earthy spices and the thought of an island in the toasted coconut, all zipped up with a well-timed squeeze of lemon. This is an absolutely delicious side that you may forsake your main dish for. The recipe says that it serves 4, but I ate half with dinner and I am eating the rest right now for lunch (it’s good cold too!). Added bonus – it is also (brace yourself) easy-peasy to make. Yep, I went there. —aargersi

What You'll Need

Ingredients

• 1 cupfrozen shredded coconut, thawed
  
• 2 tablespoonsolive oil
  
• 1 ¹/₂ teaspoonsblack mustard seeds
  
• ¹/₂ teaspooncumin seeds
  
• 1 teaspoonsesame seeds
  
• 1 pinchred pepper flakes
  
• 1 small onion, diced (about 1/3 cup)
  
• 1 fat clove garlic, minced
  
• 1 ¹/₂ cupsshelled English peas (or thawed frozen peas)
  
• 1 ¹/₂ cupssugar snap peas, cut diagonally into 1/2-inch wide pieces
  
• ¹/₄ teaspoonturmeric powder
  
• Salt
  
• ¹/₂ bunchspinach, roughly chopped
  
• Fresh lemon juice