Soybean, Green

Fresh green soybeans in the pod have only recently come to the attention of Americans, through Japanese restaurants, where they are called edamame (ed-ah-mah-may) and served as nibbles before a meal: The small, flattened pods are briefly boiled, salted, then slurped (or politely plucked) to extract the firm, buttery seeds.

Resembling plupm, petite limas, these beans of Chinese origin were developed in Japan especially for eating at the green shell stage. They are green-seeded variants of the same yellow-and-black field soybean that is transformed into tofu, miso, tempeh, fermented black beans, soy sauce, soymilk, and other building blocks of Far Eastern cuisine. Dramatically different from that mature starchy legume, this form is as vivid as fresh favas—and the same apple green.