Recipe: Roasted Parmesan Edamame

I don't know exactly where I got the idea to make these. I think maybe someone on A Beautiful Mess blogged about it, or maybe I just saw it on Pinterest. Either way, I figured I'd give it a try and I put it on my to-do list. I love edamame, I love parmesan, and I really love oven-roasted things (like chickpeas - YUM).

The recipe I found was really simple! All you need:

• Edamame beans
• Parmesean
• Olive Oil
• Salt & Pepper

Pre-heat the oven to 400 degrees. Bake for 15-20 minutes. Super easy, right?

I started off with frozen whole edamame because that's what I already had on hand. That was my biggest mistake right off the bat: the recipe needs them to be shelled.

This meant that I had to defrost all the beans just to be able to shell them all. Let's just say that it look close to 45 minutes and my fingers were prunes afterwards. Definitely buy a package already shelled.

Once the beans were all shelled and cleaned, I tossed them in a bowl with a little bit of olive oil and parmesan. I salted and peppered to taste. I also sprayed the roasting pan down with Pam so that they wouldn't stick. 

Heads up: I clearly didn't spray enough, because these guys did NOT want to leave their toasty pan by the end. Be liberal with your cooking spray.

My roasted parmesan edamame weren't at all what I expected. I guess I thought they'd cook up like my chickpeas (i.e. crunchy) even though I knew they wouldn't be in the oven near long enough to actually become crunchy. I cook my chickpeas for close to an hour - there was really no way these were going to be crunchy after 20 minutes.

What I guess I'm trying to say is, the edamame were soft.

This totally wasn't a bad thing, it just wasn't what I was expecting. The parmesan on them? AMAZING. Easily the best part. I wish I could just roast parmesan in the oven without shame, but alas, that's not the world we live in.

I ended up eating the first plateful while I stuck the rest of the beans in the oven for longer. I don't really think it made a difference, but I ate the whole batch in under an hour despite the soft-ness. It really was a great snack: flavorful, protein-packed and relatively healthy!

I'll definitely be making these again, though I think I'll leave them in the oven for a lot longer next time. What can I say? I'm a girl who loves crunchy foods. :)

Have you ever made these before? Will you try out this recipe? What would you change about the recipe?