Edamame

Mom-in-law shared a bundle of edamame with me today. A treat from her always means more work - like you have to kill it or skin it or ferment it - but it was a kind gift. Many of the soy beans in thefields are starting to mature but we have just a couple of rows for eating green. (Since I wasn't here, they didn't plant the soy beans on the big field but we'll do it next year.) The green soy beans are used in a variety of dishes but I like them best as a snack.


Recipe for the traditional snack (great with beer): Cut the edamame pods off the branches of the soybean plant. Place the pods in a plastic bag with some salt, shake them around and knead them gently to rub in the salt. In the meantime, bring a pot of salted water to a boil, drop in the pods and boil until tender. Drain in a colander, rinse and cool. Serve as an appetizer in the pods but don't eat the pods. The beans can be frozen in or out of the pods. Healthy fresh snack.

It is amazing how versatile the soybean is and how important it is in Japanese cuisine. From this one plant, we get the edamame and we can make (from the mature beans) soy sauce, miso, tofu, soy milk, and natto as well as just eating the cooked beans, using kinako (soy flour) and extracting soybean oil. Amazing!