You can store fresh or cooked edamame for up to a week in the refrigerator, but it is best to eat them soon for the sweetest flavor and best texture. If you are interested in preserving edamame for later use, simply follow the cooking procedure above for boiling, cool and freeze the beans either in their pods or remove them and freeze just the bean. It’s a nice treat to pull something green out of the freezer in the middle of the winter to enjoy as a snack or incorporate them into a winter stir-fry or pan of fried rice.
Edamame beans are sweet and tender and best eaten lightly cooked. Unlike sugar snap peas, edamame pods are not edible and should be discarded. Edamame is hard to shell when it’s raw. It is easiest to cook edamame in its pod first and then remove the beans from the pod. To cook edamame, first rinse the pods thoroughly with cold water. Bring a pot of heavily salted water (salty like the sea) to a boil. Add the edamame pods and boil for about 3-4 minutes. You should see the pods change to a bright green color. Remove the edamame from the boiling water and immediately put them in ice water or run cold water over them to quickly cool them. After the beans are cooked you can easily squeeze the pod to pop the beans out, either into a bowl or directly into your mouth! This is a great skill to teach children so they can eat them as a snack and help you shell edamame! Once you’ve removed them from the pods, they are ready to incorporate into a recipe or eat as a snack.
Children and adults alike often enjoy edamame as a simple snack, but you can also incorporate edamame into vegetable or grain salads, stir-fry, fried rice, steamed dumplings or pot stickers to name just a few suggestions. They pair well with any combination of traditional Asian ingredients such as sesame oil, soy sauce and ginger. They are also a nice, bright addition to brothy soups such as a miso soup. If you follow the suggested method for boiling edamame before shelling them, the bean will already be fully cooked, so if you are adding edamame to a hot dish or recipe, do so at the end of the cooking.
You can also roast edamame in their pods. Basically you toss the edamame pods with oil and seasonings of your choice. Serve the beans whole with their pods still on. While you won’t eat the pod, you can use your teeth to pull the edamame out of the pod and in the process you’ll pick up the seasoning on the outside of the pod!
Cultural & Historical Background: Edamame has grown in popularity in the United States over the past few years, but has been a part of Japanese and Chinese cuisine for much longer. In Asia, edamame is often sold on the stem with leaves removed, however in this country edamame is most often found in the frozen section either in the pod or shelled. American fine-dining restaurants traditionally offer a bread course before the main event, whereas in Japan or China you would usually sit down to a plate of steamed and salted edamame.
Growing Information: Edamame seed is very expensive to purchase and for many years the varieties for fresh eating were very hard to find. We were able to source some seed over 15 years ago, paid the high price, planted it and decided to save our own seed for the next year. We’ve continued to reserve a portion of each year’s crop to harvest for seed to plant the next year. Our varieties have become acclimated to our growing area and do very well for us.
