Cook Edamame
Edamame, the grand soybean. This delightful vegetable is commonly served at sushi bars and Japanese and Chinese restaurants as a meal starter, an equivalent to the European bread basket. In East Asia, the soybean has been used for over two thousand years as a major source of protein. Edamame is consumed as a snack, a vegetable dish, used in soups or processed into sweets. As a snack, the pods are lightly boiled in salted water, and then the seeds are squeezed directly from the pods into the mouth with the fingers.
Ingredients
- 1 lb of fresh edamame, frozen will work also.
- Note that frozen edamame is usually pre-cooked so all you need to do is thaw.
- Sea salt
- Table salt can be used
- Soy sauce for dipping
Steps
- Choose your soybean. There are many different options out there, from frozen, cooked and frozen, and fresh. If you are lucky enough to find fresh edamame at your local market, opt for those! All other varieties are fine to use also.
- Prepare your water. Some edamame experts will tell you that the only way to cook them is with salted water. Depending on your taste and dietary needs, you may choose to not salt the water. A recommended amount of salt for about a pound of edamame would be 1/2 tablespoon for salt lovers, 1 teaspoon for less of a salty taste. Add the salt to a large pot, 3/4 of the way filled with water.
- Boil water. Bring your pot of water to a rolling boil, making sure that it does not boil over.
- Add the edamame. When the water is at a rolling boil, add the edamame in small handfuls. If you dump all the beans it at once, you risk burns from splashing created by the beans.
- Time your edamame. For frozen beans, boil time is around 4-5 minutes. For fresh beans, test an individual edamame at around 5-6 minutes and gauge the firmness of the bean. Young fresh beans will be done in 3 minutes. Edamame beans should be firm, yet give to the teeth. Mushy beans means that they are over cooked.
- Remove pot from burner. Dump the entire contents of the pot through a colander. There will be a lot of steam from the pot, so don't put your face directly over the colander.
- Salt to taste. Some like to add an additional pinch of salt over the hot beans at the end though this is entirely optional.
- Refrigerate to cool. While not a necessary part of the preparation, most people enjoy edamame cold rather than hot. 1-2 hours of refrigeration is recommended.
- Finished.
Tips
- Use a steaming basket instead of submerging the pods in water. The pods will cook, yet not retain as much of the water they are cooked in for a lighter edamame.
- Buy frozen, cooked soybeans. You can pop them into a microwavable dish and zap them instead of boiling.
- Try other soy products! You can couple fresh edamame with tofu, soy sauce, or miso soup.
- Substitute edamame for potato chips. The salty/savory flavor also goes great with beer for an alternative Sunday football snack.
Warnings
- Do not walk away from your boiling treasure! The pot may boil over, extinguishing your flame and/or causing a soupy mess to accumulate under your burner. It is recommended that when the pot starts to boil over, immediately turn the heat down to medium.
- Do not overcook. Mushy beans mean that they were boiled too long.
