Edamame is a delicious and nutritious heart healthy food that anyone who is interested in healthy eating may want to consider incorporating into their diet. It’s been grown for many centuries in Eastern Asia.
Edamame are baby soybeans. They grow in pods clustered on bushy plants. While the soybeans are still tender they’re picked, and most often lightly boiled or steamed, and then quickly frozen.
I have to be honest though, and share that until a year ago, I had never heard of edamame (pronounced “ed-uh-ma-me”).
My introduction to edamame occurred while I was doing some research about healthy eating, and came across an article that introduced me to what a nutritious food edamame is. Through further reading, I learned that edamame is high in fiber, it’s a good source of protein, and it also provides some vitamins and minerals. Additionally, edamame is a good source of calcium and antioxidants. Not that it needs any additional good news, but it turns out that edamame is low in fat, calories, sodium, and cholesterol. Wow! What a great food!
I think each little edamame looks like a small lima bean, but after trying edamame I found out that I like edamame a lot more than I like lima beans. And there are several reasons why I like edamame so much.
The first reason has to do with edamame’s texture. (Texture is a really important aspect of the foods that I eat, but that’s another story.) Even after cooking, edamame retains a nice firm almost crunchy texture. Edamame never get that overcooked, mushy, soggy texture that some other vegetables get when they’re cooked a little past their prime cooking time. Edamame’s ability to retain that nice firm crunch gives them big bonus points in my book.
The second reason has to do with taste. Simply put, edamame is delicious. They’re kind of a combination of a little sweet and a little nutty.
Another reason I like edamame is that in addition to being able to stand by itself as a delicious side dish, edamame can also be used as a flavorful addition to many other dishes. We often add it to salads, stir fry, soups, casseroles, and we also like to combine it with other vegetables.
We buy the shelled edamame by the bag from the frozen food section of the grocery store. Edamame can also be purchased in the pod form. It’s become a staple that we keep on hand all the time. Edamame is so versatile – it also works as a tasty snack, and some stores even sell chocolate covered edamame.