Love and Olive Oil

Spicy Miso Edamame

Spicy Miso Edamame Recipe

One of my favorite parts about going out to a Japanese restaurant is the heaping bowl of steamed edamame that we’ll more often than not order to start our meal. Tender-crisp and lightly salted, steamed edamame is a perfect palate-cleansing starter.

It is rare that you see a variation on that classic steamed edamame, however. Restaurants seem content with it as is, tender and lightly salted, and, while delicious, it shows a surprising lack of creativity. It’s a great palate-cleansing starter, I’ll admit, and a dish we order regularly, but it’s never something to get excited about.

Until now.

This recipe was inspired by a dish served at Two Ten Jack, a local Nashville ramen house. It’s really one of our favorite restaurants lately, and this edamame is perhaps our favorite thing on the menu (excepting the ramen, of course, that I won’t even attempt to recreate).

Coated with a sweet, sticky, and spicy sauce made from red miso, it takes the idea of starting your meal with steamed edamame to a whole new level. Sufficiently salty like plain steamed edamame, but that is where the similarities end. Talk about a flavor explosion.

Spicy Miso Edamame Recipe

During our last visit to the restaurant, I was able to canoodle the ingredients in the sauce out of the waitress, and shortly thereafter set about recreating it at home. And after a few tries tweaking and perfection the proportions, it’s pretty spot on. I added a bit of brown sugar to match the sweetness of the restaurant version, even though she didn’t technically say there was any in there.

Spicy Miso Edamame Recipe

The sauce is made up of 5 things: red miso paste (fermented soy), soy sauce, sake (rice liquor or wine), sambal or sambal oelek (a spicy red chili paste), and mirin (a sweet rice wine). All of which you should be able to find at Asian food stores or any market with a good international food selection (like Whole Foods), and also online. Miso paste comes in different color varieties; the mildest, white and yellow miso, form the base of traditional Japanese dishes like miso soup. The red variety that I’ve used in this recipe has a richer, more intense flavor.

Asian Spicy Miso Edamame Recipe

You can increase the amount of Sambal chili paste to your liking: the 2 teaspoons listed will give you a pleasantly spicy kick, but add more or less depending on your personal tastes. Just know that if you taste the sauce on its own, it is WAY more intense than it will be spread out over the edamame. Like, unbearably salty and intensely flavored (I don’t recommend it). I suggest making it once, and then adjusting the spice level for the next time.

You can also double or oven triple the sauce recipe to make the purchase of these specialty ingredients worthwhile (I know I hate it when a recipe has me buy a bottle of something only to use 1 1/2 teaspoons of it). So it’s easy enough to make a big batch of the sauce, using up all your special ingredients, and then divide it into serving-size portions and freeze in zip-top bags. When you want to use it, simply thaw the sauce overnight in the fridge (or quickly in some warm water) and in a matter of minutes you’ll have a fresh batch of spicy miso edamame to snack on.

I could also see this sauce being used on other vegetables, or even meat or fish, for a spicy Asian kick.

Quick & Easy Asian Appetizer - Spicy Miso Edamame Recipe

If we have any edamame-newbs among us, don’t want to eat the entire pods, which have an unpleasantly tough and fibrous texture. Rather, squeeze the tender beans out of the pod with your teeth, tasting all the amazing flavor stuck to the outside while you’re at it. Serve your edamame alongside a second empty bowl to discard the used pods.

Spicy Miso Edamame

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Ingredients:

  • 12 ounces frozen edamame in shells
  • 3 tablespoons red miso
  • 1 tablespoon sambal oelek chili paste (or to taste)
  • 2 teaspoons sake
  • 1 1/2 teaspoons soy sauce
  • 1 1/2 teaspoons mirin
  • 1/2 teaspoon brown sugar
  • 1/2 teaspoon sesame oil

Directions:

  1. Bring a pot of salted water to a boil. Cook frozen edamame according to package directions until tender but not overcooked (I find about 45-60 seconds less than the lower end of the time range instructed on the package produces perfectly cooked edamame to my tastes).
  2. Meanwhile, whisk together miso, sambal, sake, soy sauce, mirin, and brown sugar until smooth.
  3. Heat sesame oil in a skillet or wok over medium-high heat. Add miso mixture and whisk until heated through. Add cooked edamame and toss to coat. Remove from heat and transfer to serving bowl; serve warm.
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15 Comments

  1. Yum! Edamame is one of my favorite foods ever. It makes such an easy dinner and healthy too. I have some red miso on hand, and while I adore miso soup, there is only so much that I can eat. I’ve never thought to make a miso sauce for edamame. It’s brilliant!

  2. I love it when restaurants add something special to edamame! One of our favorite spots does a spicy garlic sauce on theirs, but spicy miso sounds pretty delicious as well. 

  3. I spotted this recipe on Facebook and had to come have a look. I could eat this every day. Love the creativity. Pinned.

  4. We call edamame Happy Beans in our house, cause they always seem to cause a state of happiness.  Just think of the euphoria that will ensue when I make these!  Thanks for sharing.  A good friend just moved to Nashville so I’ll have to tell her about Two Ten Jack.

  5. I like edamame, but it can be tough to find new ways of preparing it. Thanks for sharing this great recipe!

  6. We always order edamame too and like the basic version. But when a restaurant does something different, we sit up and take notice. A new place near us does a salty Chinese Five Spice seasoning mix on theirs instead of salt. We order two bowlfuls every time! Love your new twist and can’t wait to try it!

  7. I absolutely LOVE miso edamame and often wish I could just have a giant bowl of shelled edamame drowning in the sauce so I can eat it with a spoon.  So so good!  Pinning now :)

  8. I am OBSESSED with Two Ten Jack.  On a first name basis with the bartenders at this point! 

  9. Spicy edamame is one of my favorite dishes at sushi restaurants.  Definitely going to make this!  Thank you!

  10. My mouth started watering reading your description. I am definitely putting this on my list of things to make!

  11. I love this! Definitely going to give it a go because we eat a lot of edamame in this house! It’s actually Archer’s favorite vegetable — he calls them “popper beans” because of the way they pop out of the shell. Edamame is not a word he could quite figure out at 2 years old ;-)

  12. I’m SO excited to see you posted this recipe! It’s so delicious getting it at the restaurant, so I will definitely be making this at home. My first exposure to extra tasty edamame like this was at Virago! I want to remake that one too! Yummmm. I can’t wait to try this! 

  13. I love a good pile of edamame, especially if they get it right! Sometimes there is nothing on it, which stinks, but this looks like it has the perfect amount of seasoning!

  14. I’ve heard lots of good things about these beans, and recently I found them in my grocerystore here in sweden. I’m a bit confused though, I’ve understood that you don’t really eat the “shell”, just the bean – so I’m having a hard time understanding the spices and goodness you put on the outside? Please inform a curious Swede!

    //Linda

    • You eat the edamame by putting them in your mouth and ‘squeezing’ out the inner beans. As you do so you taste all that delicious flavor on the outside. :)

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