Edamame Bruschetta

I ♥ edamame

I feel like eating something green. It's been a while :) I love edamame and have bookmarked this super interesting recipe a while back, classic Italian brushetta with a Japanese twist. Perfect to meet the green quota yet satisfying my carbo craving. I wolf down at least 4 slices in my attempt to eliminate the not-so-perfect-looking pieces. Ha!

Wei Shen dropped a fun fact the other day that soybean milk is made from edamame. Well, he's half right, edamame is the immature soy (hence bright green), while the pale yellow soy for milk (or tofu) that we usually drink is from the fully mature crop. Check out the soy milk experiment from Kathy using both the beans. I shall not bore you with any nutritious facts, just eat more of it or I'll help you out :)

Herbs

• 2 dried chilis, or dried chili flakes
• ½ cup mint leaves
• Black peppercorns

Ingredients

• 250g frozen edamame
• 3 tsb extra virgin olive oil
• 3 garlic cloves
• 1 tbs grated Parmesan cheese
• ½ loaf wholemeal French baguette, thickly sliced

Serves 8-10 pieces. Adapted from Healthy Eating Plans



Pretty in green!

Directions

1. Fill a medium-sized pot with water and bring to boil. Add slightly defroze edamame to the pot and let it boil for 15 minutes or until soft. To test it, scope out a piece of edamame, deshell and taste the texture of the bean
2. Once it's ready, deshell all edamame in a small bowl and use a fork to mash it up. Alternatively, give it a few quick pulse in a grinder for more even texture
3. With 3 garlic cloves, crush and roughly mince only 2 cloves (with skin on) while setting 1 crushed whole clove aside
4. Combine olive oil, 2 garlic cloves, chopped dried chili and mint leaves in a bowl and leave to infuse for at least 10 minutes. I left mine for half an hour while I got busy with the main dish or resume daydreaming :)
5. Toast sliced baguette 10 minutes before serving. Rub a piece of the crushed garlic clove that was set aside earlier on each of the toasted slices. This adds a layer of intense fresh garlic flavour to the bread, classic step in preparing bruschetta 
6. Mix mashed edamame with infused oil and top each toasted baguette with equal portion
7. Sprinkle cheese and few cranks of freshly grounded black pepper. Garnish with leftover mint leaves and serve immediately!

I also wanted to share some useful tips from Wiffy on how to grow your own mint leaves. It's less wasteful and you can cook ala Jamie Oliver-style, plucking fresh herbs from your kitchen sill :)