Ingredients:

sauce:
1/2 cup water
1/4 cup mirin
1/4 cup lightly salted roasted peanuts*
1 tablespoon fish sauce
1 tablespoon dark sesame oil
1/2 tablespoon minced ginger
2 cloves garlic

other:
1 lb sugar snap peas
1/2 cup water

Directions:

In a mixer, pulse all sauce ingredients until very smooth. If using a VitaMix or other powerful blender, continue mix on high until the mixture is hot. Steam will come out of the top when you remove the lid, about 1-2 minutes. Allow to cool. Place the peas and water in a small pot. Cover and bring to a boil and cook for 1-2 minutes or until the peas are bright green. Drain and place in a small bowl. Drizzle with sauce. Serve immediately.

*I made this using my very powerful VitaMix which is able to make a very smooth sauce even with whole nuts. If using a regular blender, substitute 3 1/2 tablespoons of smooth peanut butter for the  peanuts and heat the mixture through in a small pan then cool prior to serving.

My thoughts:

We still had some sugar snap peas from the last produce box we received (we had a fun long weekend away going to see the world’s best metal-mariachi band and playing skeeball in NJ and didn’t cook as much as usual last week) and our new box arrived today with more sugar snap peas so I had to use them up! I haven’t made peanut sauce in six years but it sounded like a yummy way to jazz up some snap peas in a jiffy. Plus my poor Vitamix was growing dusty with lack of use. I wanted the sauce to be light so I used water instead of broth or a lot of oil and used roasted peanuts instead of peanut butter which I think gives a lighter, fresher taste. I like peanuts a lot but I do think they can add a overpowering flavor and heaviness to a dish. Not the case here! The ginger provide a bit of zip but was more of a background note.

Bonus: it took less than 10 minutes to make this whole side dish; can’t beat that for a weeknight!