Roasted Edamame Salad

Well, once again I am on a get-healthy kick so I’m on the lookout for some new salads. I’ve gotten incredibly bored with my old basic luncheon salads; I have a couple favorites I’ve already posted – but any new ones have to be comparatively simple to make. Who has time to take a couple hours just to make lunch? For one person? It has to be a salad you can make ahead at the very least AND it needs to satisfy the basic foodie in me too. I’ve been trying one after another; yesterday I made Giada’s Israeli Couscous salad. Uh uh. Not for me. Maple syrup in a salad? It looked so good with the almonds, apples and dried cherries and the reviews were excellent. But I thought it perfectly ghastly. Something about the sweetness with the fresh herbs maybe? Even writing about it today makes me cringe a bit.

Soooo…. after weeks of experimenting I decided on one I just know is going to become one of my favorites: Roasted Edamame Salad.

My introduction to edamame was years ago in New York City at a restaurant called Match. They brought a big steaming bowl of perfectly seasoned edamame in their pods and it was such fun to pop them out and nibble. They had some kind of lobster salad I loved too, but I guess not too many other people shared my fondness for Match because it went under ages ago. Now I wish I had asked someone there what seasoning they used on their edamame. With a little begging I may have gotten an answer. Oh well, too late now.

In Boca Raton we have a charming Japanese Museum and Gardens called Morikami. They have a restaurant called Cornell Cafe and steamed edamame is on the menu. The seasoning doesn’t hold a candle to Match, but it’s a charming little cafe just the same. And they serve a killer ice cream dessert called mochi. Traditional daifuku mochi is a Japanese confection made from sweet glutinous rice paste and normally filled with sweet azuki bean paste but in Morikami’s case they serve yukimi daifuku which is mochi filled with ice cream- green tea, chocolate or mango. It’s dusted with something like cornstarch or maybe confectioners sugar. Oddly enough, Tea and Cookies discussed this very thing in a recent post. Well anyway, I hope you’ve tried it, because it’s fantastic. And if you haven’t, it’s worth a search.

Okay, now back to the important stuff: Roasted Edamame Salad. Delicious, chewy and all the colors make for a lovely presentation. It would make a great picnic salad too- it travels well, and is best served at room temperature. On the other hand, I have made it, had it for lunch, refrigerated it and served it for dinner and then again the next day. It was still wonderful. Not many ingredients and amazingly simple to make considering the wonderful flavors that result.

Roasted Edamame Salad(Recipe courtesy Alton Brown)

Ingredients:2 cups edamame (I use frozen, thawed)

4 ears of corn, uncooked, kernels cut off the cob

1/4 cup sliced green onions

1 minced garlic clove

2 tablespoons olive oil

kosher salt

freshly ground black pepper

1 cup diced tomato

1/4 c. fresh basil, minced

1 tablespoon red wine vinegar

Method:
Preheat oven to 400°. Mix first 7 ingredients and place on a baking sheet.  Roast about 15-20 minutes or until lightly browned. Place in a bowl and cool in the refrigerator for 30 minutes. Add the remaining 3 ingredients. Correct seasoning. Serves 2-3, depending on appetites.