The Meatwave

For the past four weeks, my life has pretty much been lived on the road, with only a handful of nights spent in my own bed. This time away from home has left with with a backlog of work that has me trying to play catch up as quickly as possibly. Don't feel too bad for me though, because almost half of that time was spent on vacation, where my wife and I indulged in grand meals on a daily basis, leaving me returning home to pants that now fit a bit snugger than I'm used when. When thinking of the best post-vacation recipe to go with, this sweet and spicy grilled edamame seemed like the perfect choice—it is at the same time incredibly quick and easy, as well as fairly healthy (and boy do I need to get some healthy stuff back into my diet).

When I say quick, I mean it. Not only does this recipe have only a few steps, but you can go from start to finish in less than 15 minutes if the grill is already preheated. Prep involved making a sauce that was comprised of both dark and sweet soy sauces, dark brown sugar, Thai chilies, garlic, and vinegar. This created a savory sweet and spicy sauce that I divided into two—one half to be used to coat the edamame after cooking, and the other to be used as a dip.

Edamame themselves really require no prep before being cooked—whether they be steamed, boiled, or grilled. I did toss them with a little sesame oil here though, mainly because I wanted to impart that roasted quality that I thought would enhance the flavor overall in the end.

I placed the edamame in a grill basket to keep them from falling through the grates, covered, and cooked them until they lightly charred on the outside and were throughly heated through on the inside. This took a total of 10 minutes, with some stirring occasionally for the most even cooking.

The I transferred the edamame back to the bowl, poured in the sauce, and tossed to coat. The sauce didn't cling to the pods completely, leaving a little pool of sauce at the bottom of the bowl, but they got a spotted covering that began to impart that sweet and spicy flavor.

For the optimum experience though, they needed to be served with the sauce as a dip as well—when the pods were dunked into the sauce right before consuming, they had a much more pronounced savoriness that made them a truly excellent treat. In my current post-vacaction, I-ate-all-the-things-for-weeks state, I need to stop going for the chips and fries and reaching for snacks more like this, which are just as satisfying, but a whole lot better for me.

Published on Thu Oct 27, 2016 by Joshua Bousel

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