Peas

“Come March, it’s no longer possible to be inspired by root vegetables,” says chef Mike Lata. “You’ve done everything you can.” When spring finally arrives, he uses delicate peas and pea shoots to make this simple side dish. “Cooking in the spring is like make-up sex after the bitter fight with winter,” he says.

This chicken dish is elegant enough for entertaining and easy enough for a simple weeknight dinner.

Daniel Boulud's deliciously light and clean-tasting soup—a mix of sweet peas, favas, pea shoots, snap peas and snow peas—is on the menu each spring at his Café Boulud in New York City. An easier method is to skip the labor-intensive fresh favas, as well as the snow peas and pea shoots. Instead, just use sugar snaps and frozen baby peas.

Tom Colicchio pairs chef James Tracey's pea-bacon risotto with Mark Tarlov's Oregon Pinot Noir: "It was great to find someone who was excited about creating a house wine"

Vinegary dishes and wine can be a terrible combination. But the sharp chopped red onion Mark Ladner tosses with these tangy peas makes the recipe delicious with a lightly tannic red.

Pairing Suggestion: Refreshing Italian sparkling wine: NV Mionetto Prosecco di Valdobbiadene.

This green salad contains no lettuce and no vinaigrette—just cucumbers, peas, parsley and basil in a tangy yogurt dressing.

More Amazing Green Salads

Get a skillet really, really hot before adding the snap peas; they make a fun popping sound when they hit the pan. Then put the skillet straight into a hot oven, tossing the peas every few minutes so they don’t burn.

Chefs Bowman Brown and Viet Pham make this creamy, tangy porridge from sweet peas and yogurt.

Sanjeev Chopra has advice for filling his delightful vegetarian samosas: "Mash the peas, but not too finely; you want little pieces, for texture." He makes his own buttery dough, but frozen empanada wrappers, widely available in supermarkets, are an excellent substitute.

As a dairy-free alternative to creamy dips, the recipe here calls for pureeing sweet peas with scallions, ginger and jalapeño, then seasoning the mix with yellow miso. Serve the spread with different kinds of crackers and breads or sugar snap peas and celery for dipping.

This delicate broth is full of vitamin C, thanks to the pea pods Jeremy Fox simmers. He tops the consommé with shards of white chocolate because he likes the way it brings out the peas' sweetness while adding only a little fat.

"It's hard to improve upon a perfect sugar snap pea," says chef Travis Lett. "The question for the chef is, how do you not screw it up?" Lett's answer is to keep things simple, by cooking the sweet peas with fresh mint, crushed red pepper and soffrito (an aromatic Italian mix of sautéed minced vegetables, usually used to flavor soups and sauces).

This combination of sugar snap peas, snow peas and green peas—dressed in a sherry vinaigrette blended with a touch of sour cream—is clever and delicious. It can be made into a main course by adding shaved Manchego cheese and serrano ham.

Cooked with shallots and butter, this easy side dish of peas and carrots tastes luxuriously rich. Mint adds a pleasant herby freshness here; anise-scented tarragon would be delicious too.

Mauricio Couly uses a mix of spinach, fava beans, green beans and a good amount of mint. He makes his own paprika-spiced empanada dough; store-bought empanada wrappers (available in the freezer section of many supermarkets and specialty food stores) work well, too.

For a simple spring dish, chef Cindy Pawlcyn folds penne with asparagus and sweet English peas, then adds a little cream for richness.

A Spanish tortilla is like a frittata. Francis Mallmann makes a lovely spring version with yogurt, fresh mint and sweet peas, baked in an oven (preferably a wood-fired oven) until just set. It's delicious served warm or at room temperature.

At his restaurant, Daniel Humm serves his wonderful sweet pea soup "cappuccino-style," with a topping of morel cream that's been frothed with an immersion blender. The recipe here simply calls for swirling the cream into the soup. Indeed, the cream is so intensely mushroomy, you may be tempted to eat it on its own.

Instead of deep-frying the falafel patties, Nicki Reiss sautés them in a lightly oiled pan. And she serves them with a low-fat yogurt sauce instead of the usual rich sesame-based tahini.

The bright spring flavors of peas and mint convey energy. Adding salty roasted pistachios and shavings of Pecorino Romano cheese to the salad give it a great nuttiness.

This delicious old-fashioned dish features peas and carrots in a lightly thickened, buttery thyme-infused sauce.