Edamame!
May 28, 2008 2:46 pm
Christine
culinaria
Do you know what that is? It’s another word for SOYBEANS!
Soybeans, as you know, are mostly used to make other things, such as soy sauce, tofu, and fake meat products for vegetarians. But yeah, people do eat them as beans, too. They are not the kind of food item that you’d put in a gift basket, but they are still good for you. So, if you see them at the store, pick some up and give them a try!
Mike saw them in the freezer section of the store, and picked up a 16 ounce bag of them. Last night, I cooked them…two ways!
The first was a mac & cheese recipe from Ming Tsai that I found on the Food Network site. He calls it Protein-Packed Mac-N-Cheese. It’s from his old show, on which he did an episode about cooking for kids. Sometimes parents have to sneak in healthy foods to get the kids to try them. I have no such need, but I love Ming, and I love mac & cheese, so I tried it.
I didn’t feel like running out to the store to buy the cheeses called for, so I improvised with what I had on hand. I had some Cabot Cheddar Shake and a wedge of Parmesan, so that’s what I used. Cabot Cheddar Shake is a good product. It’s not like that (mostly salt) powder that comes with the blue box mac & cheese, it’s 100% dehydrated Cheddar from one of the best cheesemaking companies in the U.S. It can only be bought via mail order, for some reason. If you order it, buy a case of six, buying one isn’t worth it because the shipping would cost more than the cheese. It keeps forever, and you can always split the order with friends. I love the stuff!
Anhyoo, the cheese powder dissolves very nicely in the warm milk. The dish turned out great! So please feel free to use whatever cheeses you like and have on hand for this.
I really couldn’t taste the edamames, even though I could see that they were there. If you’ve ever had tofu, you know that it really has no flavor, it takes on the flavor of whatever you cook it with. Same here. Soybeans have no strong or disagreeable flavor that kids often object to. This is a good, healthy dish for kids, and for adults, as well.
I used the rest of what was in the bag to make this Roasted Edamame recipe from Recipezaar. This was also excellent. I took the advice of someone who left a comment there, and doubled the amount of spices, plus I used more olive oil, as well. I didn’t have any onion salt, just onion powder, so I used half salt and half onion powder instead. It came out very tasty…give it a try sometime!
So, if you’ve never tried soybeans before, give them a shot!
