Mangetout substitute

Best substitute

Sugar snap peas

Use the same amount by weight as the mangetout you are replacing

Best for stir-fries

Close match

Sugar snap peas are the closest thing and swap one for one by weight, just sliced on the diagonal if you want them to look the part. Green beans or French beans, cut into two-inch lengths, hold their crunch beautifully but need about two minutes more in the pan, so add them first. Thin asparagus, cut on the diagonal, is excellent in spring dishes and needs 90 seconds and no more. Frozen peas at three quarters of the weight, stirred in at the very end, give you the sweetness and the colour but none of the crunch. What mangetout actually contribute is texture, fresh green sweetness and colour. They add no bulk, no starch, no thickening and no savoury depth, which means the swap you want is simply whatever else stays crisp and green after two minutes of heat.

Other mangetout substitutes

Ranked, with the exact amount to use

2Green beans, French beans or haricots verts
Different taste
Use the same amount by weight, cut into 2-inch lengths
Sturdy, widely available and reliably crunchy.
What changes
Best for
stir-fries, curries, salads, steamed sides
Excellent structurally: they hold a snap far longer than a pea pod and never go limp. They taste denser and squeakier and much less sweet, so a stir-fry loses the light grassy sweetness that mangetout bring. They also need roughly two minutes more cooking, so either add them to the pan two minutes before everything else or blanch them for 90 seconds first, which is the cleaner method for a fast stir-fry.
3Thin asparagus spears
Taste and texture differ
Use the same amount by weight, cut into 2-inch lengths on the diagonal
Spring asparagus, thin spears only, sliced at an angle so it cooks fast.
What changes
Best for
spring stir-fries, risotto primavera, salads, pasta
A very good swap in spring cooking, and the colour and the fresh-green role are covered exactly. Asparagus is more mineral and grassy where mangetout is sweet, and it softens much faster, losing its snap within two minutes, so give it 90 seconds in a hot pan and stop. Thick spears are the wrong shape and take too long. Peel or snap off the woody ends first.
4Frozen peas
Different texture
¾ the weight, added in the last 60 seconds
The freezer answer, which covers the sweetness and the colour and nothing else.
What changes
Best for
fried rice, risotto, curries and soups, pasta
You get the pea sweetness and the bright green and you lose the crunch completely, so a stir-fry becomes uniformly soft and loses its bite, which matters more than the flavour. Where the dish has other crisp things in it, this is a perfectly good swap. In a fried rice or a risotto it is genuinely excellent. In a spring salad, where the snap is the point, it does not work at all. Add them from frozen right at the end.
5Tenderstem broccoli (broccolini) or thinly sliced broccoli
Different taste
Use the same amount by weight
Split thicker stems lengthways so they cook at the same rate as the florets.
What changes
Best for
stir-fries, noodle dishes, roasting, steamed sides
Sturdy, reliably crunchy and roughly the right green. Two real differences: it is distinctly more cabbagey and slightly sulphurous where mangetout is sweet and clean, and its florets soak up far more sauce than a smooth pea pod does, so the dish tastes more strongly of whatever is in the wok. Give it 3 to 4 minutes, and add it well before any protein finishes.
6Celery, bok choy stems or green pepper batons
Different taste
Use the same amount by weight, cut into 2-inch batons
Texture-only stand-ins, cut to roughly mangetout size.
What changes
Best for
stir-fries, noodle dishes, fried rice
Being honest, these give you crunch and a pale green and nothing else. There is no pea sweetness at all, and celery brings its own savoury-bitter note that changes the dish more than people expect. Add 1/2 teaspoon of sugar to the sauce and it works fine in a saucy stir-fry where the seasoning carries everything. In a spring salad or a simple buttered side dish, where the pea flavour is the entire point, it does not work.

What is Mangetout?

Mangetout is Mangetout are flat, thin-podded immature peas eaten whole, pod and all, sold as mangetout or mange tout in Britain and Ireland and as snow peas or Chinese pea pods almost everywhere else.

Cooking tips

Mangetout need almost no cooking. Sixty to ninety seconds in a hot pan or a minute in boiling water is enough. Past two minutes they turn limp and khaki, the snap is gone and there is no way to recover it, so add them last and take the pan off the heat while they still look slightly underdone.
Snap off the stalk end and pull the string down the straight edge. Older, larger pods have a tough fibrous string that ruins the texture and makes them feel stringy in the mouth; small young pods do not need it at all.
Mangetout, mange tout, snow peas and Chinese pea pods are four names for exactly the same thing. Sugar snap peas are the closely related plumper cousin, not another name for the same pod, so a recipe calling for sugar snaps is not calling for mangetout.
When you substitute something denser like green beans or broccoli, add it to the pan two to three minutes earlier rather than extending the total cooking time. Otherwise the protein and the aromatics overcook while you wait for the vegetable to catch up, which is the usual reason a substituted stir-fry tastes worse.
Cook them in a dry, properly hot pan first and add the sauce afterwards. Wet heat steams pea pods soft; dry high heat blisters and chars them lightly and keeps the snap, which is where most of the pleasure is.
Buy them bright green, flat and unblemished with no swelling in the pod. A puffy mangetout has peas developing inside, which makes it starchy and tough, and it is better treated as a slightly disappointing sugar snap than as a mangetout.

Frequently asked questions

Are mangetout and snow peas the same thing?

Yes, exactly the same vegetable under different regional names. Mangetout, from the French for eat-all, is the British and Irish term, sometimes written mange tout. Snow pea is the American, Australian and Chinese-restaurant name, and Chinese pea pod appears on some packaging. Any recipe using any of those names wants the same flat, thin-podded pea, and no adjustment is needed.

What is the difference between mangetout and sugar snap peas?

Timing of harvest. Mangetout are picked flat before the peas inside develop, so the pod is thin, translucent and delicate. Sugar snaps are picked once the peas have filled out, so the pod is thick, crisp and rounded. Both are eaten whole. Sugar snaps are sweeter, juicier and crunchier; mangetout are more delicate and cook faster. You can swap them one for one, giving sugar snaps about 30 seconds longer.

Can I just leave mangetout out of a stir-fry?

Yes, nothing in the dish depends on them. They contribute crunch, colour and a light sweetness rather than any flavour backbone. The real risk in leaving them out is ending up with a stir-fry where everything is soft, which tastes dull no matter how good the sauce, so put something crisp in their place: green beans, sliced pepper, celery, water chestnuts or even a handful of beansprouts at the end.

Can I use frozen mangetout?

Yes, but adjust your expectations. Freezing ruptures the cell walls, so frozen mangetout come out soft rather than snappy no matter how briefly you cook them. Stir them into the pan from frozen in the last 30 to 60 seconds, do not thaw them first, and treat them as a source of flavour and colour rather than texture. They are much better in a saucy dish than a salad.

Do I need to string mangetout before cooking?

Only the larger, older pods. Snap off the stalk end and pull it down the straight side of the pod; if a string comes away, keep going with the rest of the batch. Small, young, bright pods have no string worth removing. It takes a couple of minutes for a bagful and it is the difference between a pleasant snap and a chewy fibre in your teeth.

Related substitutes

More vegetables & aromatics substitutes

Mangetout substitute

Other mangetout substitutes

2Green beans, French beans or haricots verts

3Thin asparagus spears

4Frozen peas

5Tenderstem broccoli (broccolini) or thinly sliced broccoli

6Celery, bok choy stems or green pepper batons