How To Cook Edamame

Edamame (pronounced 'ed-uh-mommy') is the Japanese word for green soy beans.  Cooked and eaten cold, they are an addictive snack.

You can find edamame in the frozen vegetable section of many markets.  Our Costco sells a bag of four 14 oz packets for $5.99.

                   Start with a generous amount of boiling water, to which...

                          You add a generous amount of non-iodized salt.

CAREFULLY pour the edamame into the boiling water.  The pods will sink to the bottom, and the water will go off the boil.

I have found that leaving the edamame for six minutes, from beginning to end, works just right.  The water returns to the boil, the pods float to the surface, and it is time to drain into a colander.  

I have learned to prop up one corner of my colander with a wooden spoon handle.  This allows for faster draining, and prevents the gushing water from stalling in the colander and bathing the pods in water that has contacted the sink/drain area.

Note the waiting ice bath in the lower right of this picture. 

You will quickly plunge the edamame into the chilly bath to stop the cooking process.  You may need to add a few more ice cubes and gently stir the edamame to allow the cold water to access the entire mass.

Back into the colander to drain, and, GASP!!, more salt.  If you are on a low salt diet, don't salt so much, or, as a Walter Matthau character once replied when his son admonished him about eating a sodium-laden dill pickle, "So I'll shpit the sodium out!".

And this is what all the fuss is about.  You pick up the cold pod, squeeze it open and suck, lick, tongue the bean out.  Sounds not so good, but is really very, very tasty and enjoyable.  It is hard to stop eating edamame.  'Just one more,' you think, then, 'alright, this one is the last one!'.  Yeah, right. 

Enjoy.