If you think vegan recipes are boring and flavourless, you haven’t tried this edamame buckwheat salad!
Buckwheat and edamame are accompanied by summer veggies, carrots, cucumbers and cherry tomatoes and drizzled with luscious peanut butter dressing only to create a satisfying delicacy you will want to make again and again.
Why you’ll love this edamame buckwheat salad
Bursting with Asian flavours: If you love Asian flavours, this salad might become one of your favourites! It combines all five tastes, making it a real feast for your taste buds.
Nutritious & filling: This edamame buckwheat salad is an ideal recipe for hot summer days when we crave lighter food. It has a great amount of plant-based protein, complex carbohydrates, fibre and unsaturated fat; all packed into 500 kcal. Plus, it is an excellent source of various vitamins, minerals and phytochemicals.
Find out more about its perks and health-supporting potential in the Nutrition part.
Easy to make: This vegan buckwheat salad combines ingredients that are prepared quickly and easily. Buckwheat is one of my go-to ingredients for quick salad recipes, as it only takes 10-12 minutes to cook and is incredibly nutritious.
Edamame, young soybean, needs less than 5 minutes to cook while offering an excellent portion of complete plant-based protein, fibre and unsaturated fat.
Great lunch box idea: If you’re missing lunch box ideas you can take to work or school, this one is for you! All you need to do is combine all the ingredients in a jar or an airtight container while keeping the dressing on the side. Mix the salad with the dressing right before serving to keep it crisp and crunchy. Believe me, your colleagues will be jealous. 🙂
What will you need to make this buckwheat salad?
Buckwheat groats: Buckwheat groats are hulled seeds of the buckwheat plant. They are easily recognisable as they look like little triangles, and you will find them in the grain isles of well-equipped grocery stores. If this is your first time using buckwheat, find more about its properties and ways to cook it here.
Edamame beans: For this recipe, you will need hulled frozen edamame beans you can find in Asian and whole food stores. If you want to learn more about edamame and ways to prepare them for this salad, jump here!
Carrots: Search for young, fresh and crunchy carrots, as they will be the best addition to this salad.
Cucumbers: You will encounter various varieties of cucumbers, and not all are suitable for salads. In this case, go for cucumbers with soft seeds and thin skin, which don’t require peeling, like Armenian or English cucumbers. These often come wrapped in plastic in supermarkets, so I like buying them at fresh food markets.
Cherry tomatoes: Juicy and sweet cherry tomatoes are a great addition to this buckwheat salad recipe and pair amazingly well with peanuts.
Fresh dill: Even though fresh dill is not essential in this buckwheat salad recipe, it pairs incredibly well with the other ingredients. You will find fresh dill in bigger supermarkets or food markets. To keep it fresh for up to two weeks, check out my story on how to store fresh herbs!
What will you need for this peanut salad dressing?
Peanut butter: For this peanut salad dressing, I’m using smooth peanut butter with no added salt, made only from roasted peanuts. You can also opt for the crunchy version to add texture to your salad dressing, but in that case, you don’t have to blend it.
Date syrup: Date syrup is not the classic component of Asian-inspired dressings. However, it is a perfect addition to this peanut salad dressing. Since it is made only from dates and water, it is a low to minimally processed natural sweetener, richer in antioxidants, minerals and fibre than other sweeteners like maple syrup or honey.
Rice vinegar: Rice vinegar is one of my favourite kinds of vinegar in salad dressings, as it gives a mild, slightly sweet flavour for a mellower acidic taste.
Lime juice: I like to pair rice vinegar with another acidic component for a more complex flavour. You can find limes in any better-equipped grocery store year-round. They should be slightly soft to the touch to ensure they are fresh and juicy.
Tamari: I chose tamari for a salty component of this peanut salad dressing. It is a Japanese soy sauce with a thicker consistency and is generally less salty than Chinese soy sauce.
Sesame oil: There are two types of this antioxidant-rich oil, cold-pressed and toasted. Cold-pressed sesame oil is better for cooking, while toasted one is preferred for seasoning. Choose toasted sesame oil for a stronger nutty flavour.
What are edamame beans?
Edamame is a name given to young and green soybeans, meaning “beans on a branch” in Japanese. Unlike mature soybeans for making tofu or soymilk, edamame beans are softer and require much shorter cooking time, making them super convenient in everyday cooking.
Probably you’ve encountered them in Japanese restaurants where you can order them as a snack and eat them straight from their pod (by the way, the pod is not edible).
Still, there are other ways to enjoy them! When hulled, edamame can be added to salads, stews, grain dishes, poke bowls, and more.
If you haven’t tried edamame before, let me tell you that they are contagiously delicious! Once cooked, these little green beans have a pleasantly crunchy texture and a nutty, sweet taste.
Plus, as one of the rare sources of complete protein in the plant-based diet, edamame beans are a valuable addition to your diet.
Hulled edamame mostly come as frozen or canned. Canned ones can be used immediately, while the frozen ones need short cooking before being eaten. Still, I would always go for frozen edamame since they retain nutrients better and taste and look vastly better.
How to cook frozen hulled edamame beans?
When preparing frozen edamame beans, I have two preferred ways; boiling or steaming them.
Both methods are great and give perfectly cooked, sweet edamame; you simply can’t go wrong.
Boiled edamame beans:
Place hulled frozen edamame beans in plenty of boiling water and cook for 2 minutes. Once cooked, refresh the edamame beans in ice-cold water to stop the cooking process and preserve their beautiful green colour. Don’t leave the edamame for too long in the water; once cooled down, leave them to drain well.
Steamed edamame beans:
- Add water to a pot with a steamer insert and bring it up to a boil. Make sure the water is not touching the bottom of the steamer insert.
- Once the water is boiling, add your hulled frozen edamame beans, cover and steam for 5 minutes.
- As with boiled edamame, refresh your steamed edamame beans in ice-cold water, and once cooled down, drain well.
Now you have your edamame beans ready to toss into this buckwheat salad.
