Edamame with Stock or Soy Sauce

This super-easy little dish cooks up in no time. It’s delicious— even served cold—on top of soba noodles or rice. If you don’t have dashi or stock, use soy sauce as directed; it’s even quicker and easier and nearly as good. Other fresh beans you can use: lima, fava, or cranberry.

1 tablespoon neutral oil, like grapeseed or corn

1 tablespoon minced fresh ginger

1/4 cup chopped scallion

1 cup Dashi, stock bean-cooking liquid, or 1/4 cup soy sauce mixed with 3/4 cup water

1 small carrot, julienned or finely chopped

1/2 cup snow peas, trimmed and julienned or finely chopped

2 cups shelled edamame, fresh or frozen (and thawed if you have time)

Salt and freshly ground black pepper

• Put the oil in a skillet over medium heat. When hot, add the ginger and scallion and cook, stirring occasionally, until the scallion is soft, about 3 minutes. Add the dashi and bring to a steady bubble. Add the carrot, snow peas, and edamame and sprinkle with salt and pepper.
• Cook until the beans are tender, 5 to 15 minutes.
• Taste, adjust the seasoning, and serve.
  Edamame with Ponzu.
  • The zing of the yuzu juice is fantastic, but you can also use a combination of citrus when none is available: Add roughly the same amount of julienned daikon as carrot and omit the snow peas. Substitute 3/4 cup Ponzu Sauce for the dashi.
    Edamame with Tofu.
    • With either the main recipe or the ponzu variation, in Step 2, during the last 5 minutes of cooking, stir in 1 cup (or more) cubed firm tofu or add 8 ounces or so of silken tofu and gently break it up with a spoon. (You may need to add a little more liquid.)
      Edamame with Shrimp.
      • With either the main recipe or the ponzu variation, in Step 1, stir in about 8 ounces peeled shrimp, along with the edamame. Cook until the shrimp are pink and opaque. Proceed with the recipe
    • MAKES: 4 servings
    • TIME: 15 minutes