Air fryer edamame in pods can be cooked from frozen or fresh to tender. A great way to cook soy beans with dinner or shelled dried edamame as a protein packed snack.
We love edamame as a quick snack. They keep you nice and full in a nutritious way. Salty tender bites of green vegetable, If you love Japanese food you know what I’m talking about. Cook defrosted or frozen to perfection this way. Love this easy air fryer recipe.
There are two methods we think are best. When we first discovered that we could cook Frozen Edamame at home we boiled them as the packages usually recommend. Submerged in water you’re going to lose vitamins and nutritional value cooking any vegetable this way.
We baked them out of the pod which we will share below, but when I do not want to heat up my whole house this is the best way to make air fryer snacks. You can throw these in defrosted or right out of the freezer out of the bag and still hard. Works the same way.
Ingredient Notes
You can find edamame bagged in the freezer section at almost every grocery store out there. There isn’t one I haven’t seen them in. There are name brands and store brands, I don’t find that there is a difference at all between the two. This is what I use and options to spice them up a bit:
Olive oil spray or you could use avocado oil to moisten the outsides and provide a bit of liquid to the outside so they can steam from the outside in.
Sea salt is best for flavor, I like Kosher with larger granules personally so it coats the whole outside pod. You could add pepper if you liked.
Spicy Sauce we Love
When this is done you will toss together in this sauce. Whisk the following items together until smooth (mostly) and toss with tender pods;
- 3 Tbsp minced garlic
- 1/2 tsp sesame oil
- 1 Tbsp chili paste and mayonnaise
- 2 tsp soy sauce
Tips to Remember
I always like to preheat my machine before adding any food, and spray the basket with olive oil. I rarely skip these steps. The only difference between fresh or frozen is the cook time of course.
You shouldn’t overlap pieces and insist on everything being in a single layer but like frozen french fries cooked this way it is okay in these cases. You just need to toss the contents halfway through so it all cooks evenly.
Taste this after you are done and you can adjust as needed. Make it hotter with more chili obviously or add more air fryer garlic diced up if you like.
Do you have to defrost frozen edamame before cooking?
Nope, if you want to air fry like we talk about here or boil them to tender you can pour them right out of the bag. No need to defrost beforehand. If shelled you should lower the temperature so they can thaw before browning.
Air Fryer Edamame Recipe
Equipment
- 1 air fryer
Ingredients
- 3 c edamame, in the shell, frozen or fresh
- 1 tsp sesame oil
- salt and pepper, to taste
Instructions
- Place edamame (best if they are defrosted but can be frozen) in a bowl. If defrosted lay on paper towels first to remove water from outsides.
- Drizzle with sesame oil and sprinkle salt and pepper on top and toss together.
- Pour into your air fryer basket at 400 degrees F for 10 minutes tossing halfway through cook time.
- Pop out of shell and eat soy beans inside.
Video
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
Ninja Foodi Option
You’re kinda’ steaming them in Ninja Foodi or a Cosori, especially if you add them in their frozen state. The ice will melt and the hot circulating air will create steam to get the beans tender inside. That is the only part you will eat but the outside has a lot of flavor with seasoned salts and even spicy if you toss them in some chili paste.
It doesn’t matter what brand of small kitchen appliance you have. Ninja Foodi works well, so does my AirWave and Cosori. They all work basically the same and the biggest difference is the size and shape of the air fryer basket. That’s really it, okay and maybe the color of the machine on the outside.
FAQ
No, you just want to pop the soy beans out of the pod and eat those. The outside is tough and thick, not pleasant to eat and will likely give you a belly ache if you do to.
Once they are tender you just slide your teeth across the bottom and top so the soy beans pop right out. These and our air fryer cucumber chips are a healthy snack that’s gluten free and delicious.
