Feed me! – Edamame and vegetable rice bowl

I returned to work after a week’s vacation yesterday … and returned home at 11:20 p.m.  Neither the cafeteria’s pedestrian offerings (yawn!) nor the too-rich restaurant food on SeamlessWeb appealed when suppertime rolled around tonight.  So I had a snack and resolved to cook when I came home.

After a week of eating lots of too fried, too sweet, too starchy foods, I was craving something simple and light.  And easy.  My solution?  Edamame!

Edamame (or soy beans, for the uninitiated) are a fantastically convenient source of protein — we’re talking 8 grams of protein per 1/2 cup here, people.  The parboiled, frozen variety boils up in five minutes.  For serious.  They’re perfectly tasty on their own, boiled in salted water and seasoned with a little soy sauce, seasoned rice vinegar, sherry and sesame oil.

I decided to pair my edamame with some sticky rice and green veggies.  I started up a pot of rice in my trusty rice cooker with some veggie bullion base for extra flavor.  I boiled the veggies and edamame in water on the stove as the rice was finishing up.  The resulting rice bowl was just what I craved: a filling, nutritious meal, simple enough for late night eating and ready in 30 minutes.  If I had been lucky enough to have leftover rice, it would have taken 10.

Edamame and veggie rice bowl

Ingredients:

• 2/3 cups cooked short grain white rice (see directions below)
• Better than Bullion vegetable stock base (optional)
• 1/2 cup frozen, shelled edamame
• 1/2 cup frozen broccoli florets
• 1/2 cup frozen cut green beans
• 1 teaspoon soy sauce (approx.)
• 2 teaspoons seasoned rice vinegar (approx.)
• 1/2 teaspoon Shaoxing cooking wine (or sherry) (approx.)
• sesame oil
• salt

Directions:

Rice:

• Cook rice per instructions on container in a rice cooker or on stove.  I used 1.5 cups rice and 2 cups cold water for my Nishiki Sushi Rice.
• If desired, add 1 teaspoon bullion base (or 1 bullion cube) for every 2 cups of water.
• Cook enough rice for several days of leftovers, if you wish.
• Short grain white rice will take about 20 minutes to cook.

Veggies:

• Bring 2 cups of salted water to a boil in a small saucepan.
• Measure 1/2 cup each of frozen edamame, frozen broccoli florets and frozen cut green beans.
• When rice is nearly cooked, add edamame and vegetables to boiling water and cook for 3-5 minutes, until edamame are tender and vegetables are just cooked.
• Add cold water to saucepan to stop the cooking process and drain.

Assemble:

• Combine 2/3 cups cooked rice with drained edamame and vegetables in a single serving bowl.
• Add soy sauce, rice vinegar and cooking wine to taste.
• Drizzle sesame oil over rice bowl and serve.

Substitutions:

• Substitute pearled barley for half of the short grain white rice.
• Try other frozen vegetables, e.g., peas, spinach or cauliflower.  If vegetables have different cooking times, add to boiling water from longest cooking time to shortest.
• Use fresh vegetables, if you have them. These can be steamed in the microwave instead of boiled.

Clacked by Molly B.
on Jan 27, 2009 @ 08:27 EST5EDT