These days many food sites exhort us to “eat the rainbow”–a colorful visual cue to remind us of the importance of incorporating a variety of nutrients into our daily diets. Good advice. I know I need the nudge.
Here is a recipe for a rainbow in a bowl, a nutritious roasted edamame salad redolent in garlic and marinated in a delightful basil vinaigrette. It is so good that I’ve found myself raiding the refrigerator late at night for this salad rather than the usual desserts. How funny is that?
Edamame?
Edamame are (Aargh! Is edamame plural or singular? ) young soybeans and they are powerfully nutritious–high in protein, dietary fiber and micronutrients.
While records indicate they were first available in the United States in the 1920s, they didn’t take off here until the 1980s when, depending upon the food writer you read, the Shogun series hit U.S. TVs and American interest in everything Japanese (including Japanese food) spiked or the U.S. organic food movement took off. Maybe it was a bit of both.
Edamame has long been a staple of Asian cuisine. In fact, the consumption of young soybeans in China and Japan predates American interest in the food by a couple thousand years. It was the Japanese who gave the young beans their modern name edamame, beans on a branch.
In Asia, edamame was consumed for both its culinary flavor and its medicinal applications for conditions as varied as diabetes and hypertension. A 17th Century Chinese writer even claimed that beans would “kill evil chi.”
Modern nutritional research has validated many of the earlier beliefs about edamame’s value in the human diet, noting that the bean is a complete protein with all the essential amino acids and a single serving provides substantial amounts of your daily dietary needs: 17% Iron, 78% folate, 26% vitamin K. A cup has only 120 calories but 10 grams of protein. Wow!
Try this great and great-for-you recipe. Who doesn’t need to exorcize a little evil chi anyway?
Yields 4 Servings
15 minPrep Time
15 minCook Time
30 minTotal Time
Save RecipeIngredients
- 12 ounces frozen shelled edamame (about 2 cups)
- 1/2 C. fresh corn kernels
- 1/4 C. finely diced scallion
- 1 clove garlic (minced)
- 1 T. olive oil
- 3/4 t. kosher salt
- 1/4 t. freshly ground black pepper
- 1 C. chopped fresh tomato
- 1/4 C. chopped fresh basil leaves
- 1 T. red wine vinegar
Instructions
- Preheat your oven to 400 degrees F.
- Combine edamame, corn kernels, diced scallion, minced garlic, olive oil, kosher salt and black pepper in a bowl and toss to combine all the ingredients and coat them in the olive oil.
- Spread vegetable mixture on a rimmed metal tray and bake for 10-15 minutes. Remove roasted edamame mixture from the oven and chill in your refrigerator for 30 minutes.
- Add tomato, chopped basil leaves and red wine vinegar to the chilled edamame mixture. Toss to combine. Adjust your seasonings to your taste and serve.
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This recipe is an adaptation of one that appeared on The Good Network. Here is the link: Roasted Edamame Salad
