Garlic Parmesan Edamame

Recipe Origin: I had an amazing edamame dish at a ramen restaurant in college, and since then I have been refining this recipe to make the best version of it possible! It doesn’t really represent the original recipe at all anymore haha, I’ve been refining it toward my personal preference for the past ~10 years.

Tools:

  • Nonstick pan (just got a ceramic one and it’s great)

  • Spatula (I use a silicone one)

  • Aluminum foil

  • Cutting board

  • Knife

Ingredients

  • Olive oil

  • Frozen edamame in pods

  • Garlic (as many heads as yield as much garlic as you want in the dish, 4 heads is usually good for a pack of edamame, though I sometimes do 6 and do tend to go overboard with garlic.)

  • Parm chez (grated)

Process:

  • Roast the garlic:

    • Preheat the oven to 375 or 400 (still unsure which is best).

    • Tear off small sheets of aluminum foil per head of garlic, plus one to for the tops.

    • Chop heads of garlic in half.

    • Place one head each in a sheet of aluminum foil. Drizzle with olive oil, enough to ensure the whole head is coated and it will be insulated from the oven’s heat. You want the heads to caramelize, not burn, but you also don’t want them to be soaking in oil.

    • Place the tops of the garlic heads (that you cut off) into the last sheet of foil and do the same.

    • Let the garlic satchels sit on a piece of paper towel for 10min. This will allow the garlics to take on some of the oil and sort of pre-insulate, and it will also let you know if there are any holes in the foil. If you see any oil seeping onto the paper towels, add another layer of foil to plug up any holes.

    • Place in the oven (I usually put them on top of a baking sheet in case any olive oil still seeps out).

    • Roast for 25min.

    • Take them out. I usually place them straight into the fridge onto a paper towel. Sometimes I pierce the foil to let some heat out, I’m still unsure if this helps.

  • Cook the rest:

    • Once the garlic is cool enough to handle, fill the pan with enough water to boil the edamame and set it on the stove over high heat.

    • While the water is coming to a boil, take the garlic out of the fridge (or wherever you put it) and squeeze the garlic out onto your cutting board. Chop it into the sized chunks you’d like in the dish. (I usually chop some very fine to become paste-like so that it can coat the edamame and mix well with the parm cheez, and leave some chonky so that I have some really good big bites of garlic in there too.)

    • When the water has begun boiling, put the edamame in. Boil it for 7 minutes. Drain.

    • Place the edamame back into the pan with some olive oil. Give it a coat, then put the garlic in.

    • Stir the garlic and edamame together, smooshing it a little to let the smaller or paste-like pieces meld to the edamame.

    • Once the garlic and edamame are well-incorporated, turn the heat down to low, and sprinkle on as much parm cheez as you’d like. (I usually put a good amount.) Sprinkle some in a thin layer first, flip, and sprinkle more, so that the cheese is distributed evenly. Let the cheez cook long enough to melt and get juuuust golden (don’t want it to get tooo brown).

    • Serve on a plate with an empty bowl for shells!

Tips:

  • These ingredients are healthy in moderation, but if you go too heavy on the cheese and/or the garlic they can form a perfect storm and rek you. So just maybe start conservatively with the cheese and garlic, I know it’s hard to “go easy” on roasted garlic, it’s so yummy!