• Skip to main content
  • Skip to header right navigation
  • Skip to site footer
Devour.Asia

Devour.Asia

Better Asian recipes for home cooks

  • Recipes
    • Cuisine
      • Chinese
      • Japanese
      • Korean
      • Thai
      • Vietnamese
      • Taiwanese
      • Filipino
      • Indonesian
      • Malaysian
      • South Asian
      • Fusion
      • Street Food
    • Ingredient
      • Poultry
      • Seafood
      • Meat
      • Rice & Grains
      • Noodles
      • Vegetables
      • Tofu
      • Mushrooms
      • Bread
      • Eggs
      • Fruits
    • Course
      • Breakfast
      • Snacks
      • Salads
      • Soups
      • Main Courses
      • Side Dishes
      • Sweets
      • Drinks
  • Kitchen
  • Stories
  • Cuisine
    • Chinese
    • Japanese
    • Korean
    • Thai
    • Taiwanese
    • Filipino
    • Indonesian
    • Malaysian
    • South Asian
    • Fusion
  • Main Ingredient
    • Poultry
    • Seafood
    • Meat
    • Rice & Grains
    • Noodles
      • Noodle Soups
      • Noodles Stir Fry
      • Instant Noodles (Ramen)
    • Vegetables
    • Mushrooms
    • Tofu
    • Bread
    • Eggs
    • Fruits
  • Course
    • Breakfast
    • Snacks
    • Salads
    • Soups
    • Main Courses
    • Side Dishes
    • Sweets
    • Drinks
  • Street Food
  • Kitchen Tales
  • Food Tales
  • About
  • Privacy
You are here: Home / Kitchen Tales / Pantry Staples / How To Cook Fresh Edamame (Fresh Soy Beans in Pods)

How To Cook Fresh Edamame (Fresh Soy Beans in Pods)

What do soy sauce, soy milk and tofu have in common? They are all made from soy beans.

Soy sauce is produced by fermenting soy beans with salt and water. Soy milk is the result of grinding dried soy beans that had been soaked in water. Tofu is coagulated soy milk.

Fresh edamame

Edamame is the Japanese name for fresh and tender soy beans in the pod and, in some cases, to a variety of dishes made with them.

These are fresh soy beans in pods. They look like fat pea pods but probably their most distinctive feature is the hair covering the pods. The pods can be eaten whole. Or, if the hairs bother you, you can press them to release the beans and eat the beans after discarding the pods.

It doesn’t take long to cook edamame. Six minutes are usually enough although the cooking time depends a lot on how young or how mature the pods are. The more mature, the longer the cooking time. Boiling or steaming are the most common methods of cooking edamame. I prefer the microwave.

Salted fresh edamame

To cook edamame in the microwave, rinse the edamame very well then place in a microwave safe bowl. For 150 grams of edamame, I added about half a cup of water and a generous pinch of salt. I cooked them on HIGH for six minutes. I recommend that after six minutes, take a pod, eat it and if it appears that it will benefit from longer cooking, put them bowl back in the microwave and cook for another minute or two.

Drain the edamame and immediately dump into a bowl of iced water. Two reasons: to immediately stop the cooking and for the pods to retain their fresh greenness. The latter may be more significant if you intent to serve and eat the edamame whole, pods and all. Drain the edamame and serve or take out the beans from the pods.

Snaping edamame pod open

After sufficient cooking, the pods are soft enough that when pressed, they pop open. If you’re not very adept at this method, you can snip off the top of the pods and string them like you would pea pods (see how) to open the pods.

Cooked edamame beans

You’ll find anywhere from one to four beans inside each pod.

When you have taken out all the beans, you can discard the pods (or feed them to vegetable-eating pets like guinea pigs) and use the soy beans in whatever dish you want to include them.

Published: March 6, 2012 • Last modified: September 17, 2020 ♥ Pantry Staples, Fruits & Vegetables
Further Reading
Chinese-style fried rice in white ramekin

How To Cook Chinese-style Fried Rice

Fried and skewered quail eggs. Tamsui Old Street, Taiwan

Quail Eggs in Asian Cuisines

Mandarin oranges

Symbolic Food for the Lunar New Year

Sidebar

Experience Asia

Thai cucumber salad garnished with peanuts and cilantro

Thai Cucumber Salad with Sweet and Tangy Chili Dressing

Japanese sakura rice bowls

Two Reasons to Go Back to Japan

Sam Veneracion making pottery. Bat Trang Village, Vietnam.

The Authentic Bat Trang Ceramic Village Tour and Pottery Class

Thai meatballs in curry sauce

Thai-style Meatballs in Coconut Curry Sauce

3 Mushroom Garlic Noodles

3 Mushroom Garlic Noodles

  • About
  • Privacy
  • Archive

Inspiration

“A full belly conquers all.”

From the film Saving Face
Popular Posts
  • A Guide To Ramen Broth: Shio, Shoyu, Miso and Tonkotsu
  • 3 Soy Sauce Braised Pork Belly
  • Steamed Pompano With Ginger Sauce
  • Tofu in Oyster Sauce
  • Slow Cooker Chinese-style Beef Tendon
Not So Fine Print

Devour Asia does NOT work with “brands”.

Devour Asia does NOT accept guest posts.

Devour Asia does NOT outsource recipe development, writing, photography and videography.

Except for the occasional stock photo and blockquote, everything © Devour Asia. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.