Edamame Salad

Best With Fresh Edamames

• Servings: 4.

This satisfying salad is based on one that is served at Buvette, a popular French restaurant in NYC's Greenwich Village.  That salad uses fresh fava beans and escarole.  But this version avoids the double-shelling task that fava beans require (I know, edamames also need shelling but at least it's only a one-step process) and I prefer the delicate flavor of a tender Bibb lettuce with edamame's equally delicate taste.

Use a fresh red Thai chili, sliced thin so that the slices scatter throughout the salad.  And taste the salad as you assemble it so that you can find the right balance of lemon, salt and olive oil.

This salad can be made year-round since frozen, shelled edamames are easy to find in large supermarkets, plus Asian markets.  But it's best when edamames are in season, in the summer when they're often sold by farmers at our Greenmarkets.

Ingredients

• 2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil, more if needed
• 2 to 3 pounds of edamames in their pods (or 2 cups of frozen edamames already removed from their pods)
• 1 fresh red chili, sliced very thin
• 1 garlic clove, grated (use a Microplane or fine grater to do this)
• Salt
• Freshly ground black pepper
• 4 cups lettuce (Bibb or Boston are good choices), washed, spun dry and torn into large bite-sized pieces
• The juice of 1 small lemon (about 2 to 3 tablespoons)
• Pecorino Romano cheese to shave on top of the salad

Directions

1. Bring a medium to large saucepan of water to a boil and add the edamame pods. Boil gently for about 5 minutes. Drain and let cool for a few minutes.
2. Once the pods are cool enough to handle, remove the edamames from their pods. You should have about 2 cups.
3. Add the lettuce to a large serving bowl and hold aside.
4. In a large skillet or sauté pan, heat the olive oil over medium high heat. Add the edamame, sliced red chili pepper, grated garlic, and about 1/4 teaspoon salt. Cook for about 4 minutes, stirring occasionally, until the flavors have come together and the edamames are tender. Remove from the heat and hold aside until the mixture cools to room temperature.
5. Once the edamames have cooled, toss the mixture with the lettuce. Sprinkle 2 tablespoons of fresh lemon juice over the mixture, adding a teaspoon or two more of olive oil if you think the salad needs it. Taste for flavor, adding a little salt, several grinds of black pepper, a little more lemon juice as needed.
6. Using a vegetable peeler, shave large curls of Pecorino Romano over the salad but don't toss it as the curls will break. Instead serve the salad, making sure that you have some of the cheese curls on each plate.
7. Serve immediately.