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
Edamame Bean Salad
Ingredients
- 1 lb frozen shelled edamame about 3 ½ cups
- 1 large red pepper diced
- ½ pint baby plum tomatoes sliced in half
- 1 cup chopped cilantro
- 2 medium green onions thinly sliced
- ½ cup dried cranberries
- 1 tablespoon honey or other liquid sweetener
- 1 tablespoon grated ginger
- 1 clove garlic grated or crushed
- ¼ cup light soy sauce I prefer Bragg's liquid aminos
- ¼ cup seasoned rice vinegar
- 3 tablespoon sesame oil
Instructions
- Bring a large pot of water to the boil, and salt generously. Add the edamame, and boil for about 5 minutes, or whatever time is indicated on your package. Drain well, and set aside.
- In a small bowl whisk together the rice vinegar, sesame oil, soy sauce, ginger, garlic, and honey to make the dressing.
- In a large bowl combine the edamame, diced pepper, tomatoes, cilantro, green onion, and cranberries.
- Pour the dressing over and give everything a good mix. Garnish with extra cilantro, and serve.
Notes
- Nutrition values are an estimate only.
- Edamame salad will last for about 3 days in your fridge.
Nutrition
This recipe was originally published October 12, 2012. It was retested, re-photographed, and most recently updated on December 17, 2019.
Rachel
Definitely one to make again. The Asian style dressing was yummy and made it feel different from salads with similar basic ingredients. It received high unprompted praise from my husband! My two children also ate it happily (without the dressing). Leftovers kept extremely well too.
Katie Trant
So glad you enjoyed this, Rachel!
Laura T (@TheSpicedLife)
Love this salad. I especially love wild rice and since I can buy it by big bagfuls at Costco here in the States I am going to go wild with it! 🙂
themuffinmyth
I see what you did there 😉 If you love wild rice you should definitely check out the original wild rice and chickpea salad. It's a really great one as well.
Kathryn
I love these kind of salads that are just packed full of good stuff & this salad sounds like it has such a great balance of flavours and textures. Delicious!
themuffinmyth
Yes and yes! It's crammed with good things, and is a flavour / texture experience to say the least. Let me know if you try it out 🙂
kellie@foodtoglow
Love the mix of sweet and savoury, soft and crunchy - texture and taste heaven. And I can NEVER leave well enough alone. Not done me too much harm I am glad to say. Hope you got that review done.
themuffinmyth
Oh gosh no. But I did get the floors washed, laundry done, mattress flipped, post written... you know how it goes 🙂