11 Tips and Ideas for Cooking Edamame

Edamame, a type of soy bean, has become wildly popular in recent years. You can find it on the shelves of most common grocery stores. You can get it dried or frozen or ready to eat (although fresh edamame is generally only found in the summer months when it is in season). But what's the best way to cook edamame? The great thing about this bean is that there are tons of different options for cooking it.

Here are 11 different tips and ideas for cooking edamame:

1. Boil your edamame. The most common method of making these beans is to boil them. What a simple dish!
2. Broil your edamame. That's right; you can actually broil beans. Take the edamame, spread it out on a pan, drizzle some olive oil onto it and broil for about ten minutes. The result is a great crunchy snack.
3. Steam your edamame. Another option for retaining the flavor and nutrients of this great soybean while cooking it simply is to steam it. Use a vegetable steamer and steam just until the color is bright and fresh.
4. Boil in salt and then cool. Add salt to boiling water before cooking your edamame. Instead of serving the edamame hot, wait for the beans to cool. This is a great light side dish that's perfect for summer.
5. Soak edamame in wine before cooking. Want to add some real kick of flavor to your edamame dish? Soak it in a vinegar or wine before you cook it. Steaming or even frying it is your best option if you do this. Note, however, that doing this will increase the cooking time of your edamame because the beans will be tougher as a result of the marinade.
6. Stir fry your edamame. It's not the healthiest way to serve your edamame but it sure is tasty. It's best if you go ahead and steam or boil the beans before you actually stir fry them to make them softer for better taste.
7. Cook your edamame in a pressure cooker. This is a great kitchen tool and it works well for these beans.
8. Saute your edamame. If you want to use the edamame in a dish such as scrambled eggs with vegetables then simply heat oil up in a frying pan and saute your edamame. When it's starting to get tender, you can add in your other ingredients.
9. Add the edamame to a soup. Include it when you add the other vegetables to the soup and cook until tender.
10. Eat it without cooking it. Edamame does not have to be cooked at all in order to be enjoyed. Eat it fresh just like it is. It's a terrific snack.
11. Remember that what you're eating is the beans, not the pod. You don't eat the pod but you do typically cook the edamame inside of the pod. You can then just pop the beans out of the pod after cooking and they're ready to go. It's not necessary to take them out of the pod before you cook them.