Edamame Bean Salad

This Edamame Bean Salad combines big flavours and bright colours to make a perfect vegetarian side dish or salad for a potluck. Made with an asian-style dressing and loaded with veggies, this is sure to be a fast favourite. 

You know that super vinegary three bean salad that always ends up on buffets? I gotta tell ya, I’ve never really been a fan.

Beans? Yes. Salads? Sign me up! But something about that specific combination just doesn’t work for me.

It was a happy day in my life when I discovered that there’s more to bean salads than that. You can use different kinds of beans! Different kinds of dressing! They can taste actually good!

I’ve been making riffs on this Edamame Bean Salads for ages now, ever since my cousin brought a tiny cardboard box of overpriced edamame salad that she’d bought at one of those big organic markets (you know, rhymes with schmole schmoods) to a potluck I was hosting.

Much like when a friend brought a version of this Wild Rice Salad to a party, I took one look at the ingredients list and knew I could reverse engineer a home version that would be just as delicious (probably more!) and cost a fraction of the price.

Once you’ve cracked the code to making bean salads like this one, you’ll never be suckered into those overpriced salad bars again. It’s bean salad liberation, and everyone is invited.

What’s in this edamame bean salad?

Ok, here we go. You’re going to need to grab some:

• Frozen shelled edamame – -> Don’t be shelling your own beans, ya hear me?
• Red bell pepper –-> A nice big one
• Tomatoes –-> I like using baby plum tomatoes, but you can also dice a roma tomato if you prefer.
• Cilantro –-> And lots of it!
• Dried cranberries –-> colour and contrast.
• Rice vinegar –-> For a bit of tang.
• Toasted sesame oil –-> Bringing big time flavours.
• Ginger –-> Pro tip – keep your ginger in the freezer for easy grating.
• Garlic –-> Mooooooore flavor.
• Honey –-> For just a touch of sweetness
• Soy sauce –-> I prefer to use Bragg’s liquid aminos as it’s lighter in flavour.

How do you make this edamame salad?

Step 1: You’ll need to start by cooking your edamame beans. I recommend you follow your package instructions, but here’s what I did:

Bring a medium-sized pot of water to a boil. Add the frozen, shelled edamame, and boil for 3-5 minutes.

Drain, and rinse with cold water to stop the cooking. Drain well and set aside.

Step 2: Whisk together the rice vinegar, sesame oil, soy sauce, honey, ginger, and garlic to make your dressing.

Step 3: In a large bowl combine edamame, diced red pepper, chopped tomatoes, cilantro, and cranberries.

Step 4: Pour the dressing over top of the salad, and mix well to combine.

That’s it! You’re done!

Can I make this salad in advance?

 You bet you can! The whole thing, dressed and all, will be fine kept in the fridge for about 3 days.

If you’re taking it to a party or a potluck you can always add the dressing right before you serve to ensure the flavours are as fresh as possible.

Can I use a different kind of bean?

I have only ever tried making this salad with edamame, so don’t have any swaps to recommend. Like most recipes, it is endlessly customizable, so if you do try something else please let us know in the comments.

Is soy healthy?

When we’re talking about whole food, protein and fiber rich green soy beans like edamame, you bet it is.

Soy has a bad rap but that’s mostly due to the highly processed nature of soy foods in our food system. Whole foods like edamame, and fermented soy foods such as tempeh and miso are healthy and delicious.

We take a deep dive into the whole soy situation in this post: is soy healthy, which is a guest post by the wonderful Kellie, a cancer nutrition educator, from the blog Food to Glow.

Other tasty recipes you might enjoy:

Spicy Tofu Grain Bowls
Wild Rice Salad
Massaged Kale Salad with Cranberries
Miso Maple Roasted Brussels Sprouts

This recipe was originally published October 12, 2012. It was retested, re-photographed, and most recently updated on December 17, 2019.