One night I was sitting around trying to figure out what to do for dinner so I texted my fiance (aka fancy-boyfriend) and I asked him, "What do you wanna have for dinner?"
"Edamame."
~Gulp air quickly, silently panic, and puzzle over the question that immediately popped into my head~
How do I make edamame into a meal?
While they are one of my favorite things to snack on whenever I get the chance, it isn't something I often think about as the mainstay of a meal.
I asked myself, 'How do I make those little beans into more?' and I started thinking about it as a combination element in a vegetable-based salad.
Which ended up as a challenge to myself, can I do this whole thing purely using plant-based ingredients?
The answer: yes, and hell yes.
After quickly raiding our freezer and fridge I cobbled together the following ingredients:
1 steamer bag of broccoli and cauliflower
1 bag frozen edamame
1 ripe avocado
First thing I did was to pop the steamer bag of broccoli and cauliflower into the microwave. I wanted the veggies to have some time to cool down before I added them into the salad.
Then I flash boiled the edamame, quickly putting them into an ice bath and salting them so I could snack as I pulled everything else together.
I took the broccoli and cauliflower and using my new favorite tool, my mezzaluna salad chopper, made everything into bite-sized pieces.
I set that aside, took my avocado removed the flesh and mashed it thoroughly until its consistency was similar to that of mayo, I added a little squeeze of lime juice to keep the color vibrant (whoever wanted to eat a brown salad? No one that's who).
Added a little salt and pepper to my 'avo-mayo' and mixed in the edamame and the broccoli and cauliflower.
It was delicious on a couple of GG Fiber crackers and then I rolled some of it into a burrito for my fancy-boyfriend and added a little bit of cheddar cheese.
If you would like more crunch, I recommend roasting the broccoli and cauliflower and I personally LOVE adding cilantro to the avocado for a little bit more flavor.