Scorched peas in a pod – think edamame with an English twist

Each week we celebrate the love of a good snack, with genius ideas for eating for pure pleasure – either solo or with friends… Sometimes, Someone gives you an idea for a snack that makes you feel like you’ve been walking around with your eyes closed. I’m not being grandiose when I say that Tomos Parry’s grilled peas changed my life. and by the power vested in me by the state of snackzia, I’m about to change yours.

at Tomos’s Basque grill restaurant Brat in london’s shoreditch, ‘grilled peas’ sit casually on a menu of delicious things that thrive when they’re cooked on or close to the flames of his purpose-built mega-grill. I also love the whole, slow-cooked turbot, the bouncy little grilled flatbread with anchovy and the burnt cheesecake, for instance.

You might imagine that, with menu buddies like those, a little plate of peas would struggle to make much of a mark, and yet I meant what I said about them changing my life.

The Brat chefs put whole pea pods on a hot grill and cook them until the outsides char and the peas within are gently steamed, so they still have a little bite. The pods are tossed with olive oil, lemon, salt and mint before they’re ready to be eaten, edamamestyle – sweet little peas sucked from their tasty, scorched pods.

How many edamame have you eaten in your lifetime? How many grilled peas? It seems so obvious, doesn’t it? This is the perfect summer snack. When I asked Tomos where he got the idea he said, ‘From eating edamame in Japanese restaurants. I love the simplicity of how they prepare them and thought: why not do this with in-season English peas?’

He says the peas work so well because, ‘The shell is full of flavour and robust enough to protect the delicate peas.

The shell can get really smoky without overpowering the sweetness of the peas.’ He adds that you could do the same thing with young broad beans, too.

You can of course eat English peas raw from the pod, but for the sake of a few extra minutes, isn’t this idea kind of… thrilling? I’ve written a recipe below based on Tomos’s, but using a good and hot griddle pan, rather than a restaurant quality Basque grill. I recommend serving them with chunks of bread at their side, similarly charred, similarly drizzled with olive oil.