snap pea
Noun: A variety of pea plant (Pisum sativum var. macrocarpon) that produces edible pods. The entire pod, including the immature peas inside, is crisp and can be eaten raw or cooked. The pod lacks the tough, fibrous inner lining found in traditional garden pea pods.
The term "snap pea" refers specifically to the plant or its edible fruit (the pod with peas inside). It is a count noun.
Examples: - For a healthy snack, she packed a bag of fresh snap peas. - The recipe calls for one cup of chopped snap peas. - He grows snap peas in his vegetable garden every spring.
- Sugar snap pea: This is a common commercial name and cultivar for snap peas, emphasizing their sweetness. While often used interchangeably with "snap pea," "sugar snap pea" specifically refers to certain popular varieties.
- The farmers' market had beautiful bunches of sugar snap peas.
- Mangetout / Snow pea: A related variety where the pod is also edible, but the pod is flat and the peas inside are very small and undeveloped. Snap peas have a plumper pod with more developed peas.
- Garden pea / English pea: A variety where the pod is inedible and only the peas inside are eaten.
- Edible-pod pea
- Sugar snap pea (specific variant)
Snap peas are distinct from snow peas. The key characteristic of a snap pea is its crisp, rounded, and succulent pod that "snaps" cleanly when broken, hence the name. Both the pod and the peas are consumed.
- variety of pea plant producing peas having crisp rounded edible pods