You’ll find them in Japanese and Asian restaurants where they are usually served salted and at room temperature. Typically, you eat the beans inside and discard the pods. Check your grocery or specialty foods store – they can sometimes be found in the frozen foods aisle.

In Chinese, young soybeans in the pod are known as maodoujia which literally translates as “hairy bean pod.” No matter what you call them, they are a specific species of soybean grown for early harvesting and are different than soybean crops grown specifically for their mature beans.

Cook them by steaming or boiling for 3 to 5 minutes. Don’t overcook – you don’t want a bunch of mush.

We are used to seeing edamame served salted at Japanese restaurants but edamame without salt is equally delicious.

Edamame calories are high in protein, fiber and potassium. According to http://www.soygrowers.com, soy beans are the world’s foremost provider of protein and oil.

Edamame in the Shell © Seapoint Farms

10. “Healthy” is the first word that should come to mind with edamame – they are a low-fat, low-cholesterol, and high-protein food.  What more can you ask for: easy preparation, super taste and high nutrition value?
9. Look for bags of frozen edamame in your local specialty food or health food store.
8. Edamame are popular in Japan and China but are catching on in the US – you will find them served as appetizers in Japanese and Chinese restaurants.
7. Worried about edamame calories?  You shouldn’t be.  There are only 125 calories per 100 grams.
6. Farmers in Kentucky and other states are now growing edamame.  The USDA has an interesting web page discussing US growing of edamame.
5. US products include those by Woodstock Farms, Trader Joe’s and Seapoint Farms.  You can buy Seapoint Farms products online from Amazon.
4. Grow your own edamame!  Buy seeds from Wannamaker Farms or other vendors online (See the “Grow Your Own” section below).  You can grow edamame just about anywhere in the US.
3. Edamame nutrion equals soy foods nutrition since they are made from the same thing.  There is a great facts sheet at soyfoods.org which discusses all aspects of soy-related nutrition issues.
2. Sprinkle the edamame with lemon juice after cooking or add soy sauce/tamari to the water when cooking to subtly enhance their flavor.
1. Edamame, maodoujia, vegetable soybeans, beer beans, sweet beans,  garden soybeans, green soybeans, immature soybeans, edible soybeans – they are all the same thing.

Edamame: 60 Tempting Recipes Featuring America’s Hottest New Vegetable – “These tasty beans are highlighted in 60 mouthwatering recipes. Whet your taste buds with Grilled Tomatoes with Edamame and Goat Cheese, Flank Steak with Jeweled Salsa, Balsamic Glazed Winter Vegetables, or Warm Scallop and Edamame Salad. Not just delicious, these recipes are packed with nutrients. But health benefits are just a bonus because the recipes are ones that any chef would be proud to serve his diners. No bland health food here but instead rich appetizers like guacamole and creamy soups such as Thai Seafood Bisque. Although the market has many cookbooks, this is the first to focus completely on Edamame-America’s Hottest New Vegetable.”

Soy of Cooking: Easy-to-Make Vegetarian, Low-Fat, Fat-Free, and Antioxidant-Rich Gourmet Recipes – “Soy of Cooking Now, you can create elegant meals that are as healthy as they are delicious. Soy of Cooking is a gourmet guide to preparing savory meatless dishes that incorporate nutrient-rich soyfoods into your diet—high in antioxidants and phytochemicals, as well as fiber and vitamins. With more than 170 enticing recipes, this innovative cookbook shows how to combine creative techniques and easy-to-find soyfoods to make healthy starters, main dishes, desserts, and more with tempting, artful presentations. Soy of Cooking defines 30 new and traditional soyfoods, most of which can be found in supermarkets and health food stores around the country. It also includes a guide to useful cooking techniques, tips on using spices,and soyfood exchange information.”

A few varieties include: “Envy”, “Besweet 2020″, “Beer Friend”, “Butterbaby”, “Butterbeans”, “Early Hakucho”, “Green Pearls”, “Misono Green”, “Shironomai”, “Tohya”  Seed companies that carry Edamame:  vermontbean.com, johnnyseeds.com, and Wannamaker Farms. Here are some direct links to buy seeds on Amazon.com: Edamame Green Soybean Seeds 50 Seeds at Amazon and Soybeans Edamame Black Seeds 7 Grams at Amazon

Soybean Plants © ARS/USDA

Growing your own healthy low-calorie edamame is easy.  Here is one person’s discussion of growing soy bean plants in flower pots on their deck.  Of interesting note in this blog post: soybeans have small root systems and thus you can plant them close together – in 2 inch spacings.  They put six plants in a large flower pot – lots of beautiful foliage and lots of edamame pods!

If you often find yourself in coveralls driving a tractor, then you will find the USDA page on growing edamame as a row crop more informative.

Finally, you will find this article at the National Garden Bureau web site to be most informative: history, seed varieties, growing and harvesting are all covered.

I struggle mostly with saving money while shopping for food because its hard to buy produce for one without spending a lot of extra money for small portions and a lot of packaging. When I buy regular-sized things, they tend to go bad before I can finish it. I hate to waste food because it feels like I’m throwing money away! Do you have any advice on how to shop more frugally for one?

I understood exactly were Elizabeth was coming from. I am single and live alone except for my beloved tri-colored corgi. I have a small 720 square foot 1/2 duplex with a tiny kitchen and very messy pantry.

At the end of 2008 I was working in the hospital building industry. The industry just tanked and all of a sudden I stopped working for my client. I found myself happily broke, moving in the direction I wanted to be moving in and now having to cook my own meals. I wasn’t even sure if I remembered how to cook for one person.

I had been single for ages but hadn’t done my own cooking. The culture I had been working was one where you went out to lunch every day with your co-workers. This entailed a $10.00+ meal of varying degrees of nutritional goodness. The meals fell into the categories of bbq, mexican, chinese, southern and foods from your childhood.

Dinner was eaten out or whatever snack food and condiment combination I came up with from my fridge. That is one thing about being single you have a great condiment selection. I am very partial to pickles, olives, pestos and mustards.

And I have definitely gained some weight over the last couple of years embracing this lifestyle. This is not something I am happy about. I am short and when I gain weight I start to look alot like a fire hydrant. Not particularly attractive. Plus being in my mid-40′s now with bits falling off I am hyper-aware of health and eating.

So I searched around online to see if there was any web sites with tips and so forth for the single kitchen. I thought it would make my transition to home cooker on a budget easier. There wasn’t to much out there but I did learn how to potion out 24 servings of chili to freeze but that was about it. Which is really surprising considering that according to Euromonitor International:

• The number of one-person households worldwide reached 202.6 million in 2006, up from 153.5 million in 1996;
• The trend of single households is closely correlated to culture and living standards. As such, developing regions tend to have a considerably lower proportion of single households than developed regions;
• Most single householders fall into one of the three categories: single young professionals who can afford their own place, middle-aged divorcees, and elderly people who tend to be on a tight budget;
• The proportion of single households is highest in developed countries. In 2006, one-person households accounted for 28.9% of all households in Western Europe, 26.7% in North America and 25.7% in Australasia;

That’s alot of single people that need help in the kitchen. I know 8 months ago I did. And it is not like I can’t cook because I can. It is just different when you are single. Even a friend of mine who is a stellar cook admitted to regularly eating canned tomato soup and toast in her single kitchen. And Elizabeth is right about the food waste. The USDA states:

• 91 billion pounds of food were lost by consumers and foodservice in 1995.
• Foodservice and consumer losses accounted for 26 percent of edible food supplies.
• Fresh fruits and vegetables accounted for nearly 20 percent of consumer and foodservice losses.

That is an outrageous amount of waste. Waste that I can’t afford in my kitchen. The USDA Food Plans budgets for my sex and age group anywhere from a thrifty $34.80 to a liberal $69.00 per week for food. That means I can be losing anywhere from $9.04 to $17.94 in food waste per week. I have better things I could be doing with that money than tossing it out.

For the last 8 months, I have been practicing and experimenting in a single kitchen to see just how best to operate a kitchen for one and save money. And now that we have the site relaunched I have a forum to expand on this topic.

I hope some of my posts help you in the kitchen and you find the rest of our site useful as well.

(NC)-Homemade biscotti are always an impressive gift for the coffee or cookie lover on your list. You can also keep an extra stash handy for any of those last minute holiday guests. Gift wrap tip: pick up Chinese food containers in festive colours from your local craft store for easy, yet attractive packaging.

Biscotti with Peanuts

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Prep time: 15 minutes
Baking time: 45 minutes
Standing time: 15 minutes
Makes 32

Ingredients:

2 cups all-purpose flour 500 mL
1 1/2 tsp baking powder 7 mL
1/2 tsp salt 2 mL
1/2 cup unsalted butter 125 mL
1 cup granulated sugar 250 mL
2 eggs 2
2 tsp vanilla 10 mL
1 cup lightly salted peanuts, coarsely chopped 250 mL
1/2 cup coarsely chopped white chocolate, about 3 oz (90 g) 125 mL
1/2 cup each dried cranberries and chopped dried apricots 125 mL

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350F (180C). Line a baking sheet with parchment paper. In a small bowl, stir flour with baking powder and salt.

2. Using an electric mixer, beat butter with sugar until well combined. Beat in eggs, one at a time, until well mixed. Scrape down sides as needed. Beat in vanilla. Gradually beat in flour mixture. Then stir in peanuts, chocolate and dried fruit.

3. Using floured hands, (batter will be sticky), divide dough in half. Place each half on baking sheet, spacing as far apart as possible. Form into 2 logs measuring about 10×3 inches (25×7.5-cm). Bake in centre of oven until golden on top, 28 to 30 minutes. Remove logs from oven, but leave oven on. Let logs stand 15 minutes, then slice into 1/2-inch (1-cm) slices.

4. Stand biscotti on baking sheet. Return to oven and continue to bake until golden on both sides, 15 to 18 minutes. Cool completely on a rack. Store in an airtight container up to one week, or freeze.

This and other peanut-inspired recipes are available online at www.peanutbureau.ca.

Credit: www.newscanada.com

Losing weight doesn’t have to be boring when you focus on bright, colourful meals.

What does this mean? Simply by making sure your plate reflects a range of colours, you’ll naturally create more balanced and healthful menus. Not everyone has the time or the patience to count calories, but assessing the colours on your plate is something anyone can do – and it only takes an instant! Why is colour important?

Many fatty and caloric foods, such as dairy products and startchy carbs, are beige or brown. When there are too many of these drab colours on your plate, weight gain is almost certain.

That’s because these beige foods often are high in calories and can leave you feeling hungry later. A cup of beige or brown beans can be over 200 calories….but a cup of red or green vegetables is under a hundred!

Add fresh greens, deep purple-reds and bright yellow-orange to a meal, and water the nutrient content go up, while calories go down! Plus, you’ll get more enjoyment from eating when there’s a variety of colours and flavors on your plate.

Although these ideas may sound whimsical, they’re grounded in scientific fact. Dr David Heber, renowned nutritional expert from University of California, Los Angeles established the role of colour in his book, “What Color is Your Diet?”

So, next time you visit the refrigerator, think colorfully. And remember to mix, not match!

To get you started on the color plate, here is a deliciously interesting salad:

Avocado, Walnut & Crispy Bacon
Preparation: 15 minutes
Cooking: 8 minutes
Serves: 4
Ingredients:

7oz rindless bacon, chopped
1/2 cup walnut haves, roughly chopped
1/3 cup extra virgin olive oil
1/4 cup fresh lime juice
Salt and ground black pepper
6oz/150g baby spinach, trimmed and washed
3 ripe Roma (egg) tomatoes, diced
1 large ripe avocado, halved, peeled, seed removed and sliced
1 small red onion, very thinly sliced

Directions:

1. Heat a non-tick frying pay over medium high heat. Add bacon and cook, stirring occasionally, for 3-4 minutes or until crisp. Remove bacon and set aside to cool.

2. Add walnuts to pan and cook over medium-high heat for 2-3 minutes or until lightly toasted. Remove with a slotted spoon to a plate and set aside.

3. Add oil and lime juice to pan. Season with salt and pepper to taste and stir to combine.

4. Combine spinach, tomatoes, avocado, onion, bacon and walnuts in a large serving bowl. Pour warm lime dressing over salad and toss gently to combine. Serve immediately.

Kim Beardsmore is a weight loss consultant whose business operates across 60 countries. Tons of recipes, articles, resources, free newsletter and more to help you lose weight and keep it off forever. Estimate your healthy body weight or register for a free weight loss consultation at http://www.weight-loss-health.com.au.