Another winter week, another auto- pilot stroll through the frozen vegetables section of the supermarket. Green beans, yawn. Peas and carrots, no thank you. Broccoli? Insert eye roll.
Here's a suggestion: edamame.
The gently fuzzed, whole-pod versions of young soybeans are widely known as steamed-and-salted bar snacks. But their pea-like seeds -- which bear a slight resemblance to lima beans and manage to hold much of their buttery texture, delicately sweet flavor and Granny Smith apple color when frozen -- make for a delicious and colorful addition to routine winter cooking.
Better still, leaving someone else to do the shelling makes them as convenient -- and as versatile -- as any other more familiar frozen vegetable, just slightly more exotic. And flexible they are, standing in for peas and fava beans in salads, succotashes, pastas and other dishes.
Another bonus: They're high in protein, fiber and B vitamins.
Then there's the name. Edamame (pronounced eh-dah-MAH-meh) means "branched bean" in Japanese, and it's a much sexier way of saying "green soybean" or "Asian pea," right?
Surprisingly, shelled edamame are widely available, whether it's the Minnesota-grown Sno Pac label (which packages under "sweet beans" rather than edamame) sold at many local natural foods co-ops, or the Sunrich Naturals brand at Lunds/Byerly's and Coborns Delivers, or the Seapoint Farms brand, available at Cub Foods.
