Arame and Edamame Salad

From Cooking with Soy, Yoshiko Takeuchi, New Holland, 2013.

I’ve never taken overmuch to the taste of seaweed; it always seems to have a tang to it that reminds me of fish which I detest. Nevertheless I do try every so often to eat a little seaweed to see if I will eventually become accustomed to its taste.

For this recipe I took a quantity of arame and soaked it in water while I went on with the next stage. I heated olive oil in a pan and added to it a chopped garlic clove and a little grated ginger. I cooked this for a few minutes and then added the drained arame that had been soaking now for about 10 minutes. The arame was sautéed for a few minutes and a tablespoon of soy sauce was added with a little water. It was now cooked until the water had almost all gone. This was put aside in a bowl.

Now I took some edamames from the freezer, placed them in a small bowl and poured boiling water over them. They were then drained and added to the arame mix.

I took some green beans, topped and tailed them, and dropped them in a pot of boiling water to blanch them for about 30 seconds. They were drained and added to the bowl. I also sliced some red capsicum and added this to the bowl. A pinch of chilli powder was added to the bowl and the juice of half a lemon squeezed over. The ingredients were now tossed gently and served on a few leaves of lettuce.

This would be the first lot of seaweed that I have truly enjoyed. It was a colourful and tasty salad. Sweet, sour, salty and crunchy—worth making.

Taste: ✔✔✔✔

Ease of cooking: ✔✔✔✔