The sharp, tangy flavour of pickled snow cabbage compliments the subtle nuttiness of edamame in this Chinese recipe for pork and beans, which makes for a quick and simple dinner.

Time: 4/5

Took damned near 2 hours start to finish, but then I was mad enough to try shell 2kg of edamame. Manageable for a quick dinner but does not scale well. Do not try to meal prep this.

Effort: 2/5

Depends on how much you hate shelling beans. Not physically difficult, and it’s kind of nice to zone out while that’s going on.

Chinese Pork and Beans

Soybeans are a frequent feature in the Asian kitchen, whether in the form of soy milk, tofu, or fermented as soy sauce. When they’re in their young, immature form they are called Edamame. They’re also called 毛豆 in Chinese (mo dau / mao dou in Cantonese/Mandarin, or literally “hairy beans” in reference to the fuzz on the surface on the pods) and make appearances in Shanghainese cuisine.

As a legume, it pulls double duty as a protein source and a a vegetable, so mixing them into a typically meat-heavy dish is one way I’m trying to reduce my meat intake while keeping protein intake high to support my fitness goals. I’ve sung high praise of edamame elsewhere on this site, and it’s what gets this recipe onto my Carnivore Rehab series where I show ways to include more vegetables into your diet without sacrificing protein.

I’m also adding picked snow cabbage, another of those briny, savoury Chinese pickles in the same family as preserved mustard greens. The plant is part of the Brassica family, which it shares with such illustrious siblings as kale and cabbage. It’s sharp, tangy flavour compliments the subtle nuttiness of edamame very well.

When edamame and pickled snow cabbage is stir fried with ground pork and served with rice, it makes for a meal that fits easily on a spoon for easy, no-brainer consumption ideal for those hectic negative-length lunch breaks where it’s 10 minutes of spoon-chew-swallow as much as you can before you march back to the front lines (somewhat like the upsetting context around the otherwise delicious Pad Krapao Moo). If your lunch break is somewhat more luxurious, I envy you.

The only real serious effort it takes to prep this meal is to shell the edamame. Some grocery stores may sell them already shelled and frozen (at a higher price per weight, of course) which would allow you to skip even this step. From then on it’s easy to make a big batch, as big as your largest pot or pan can hold. Freeze the extras for a quick, healthy and savoury snack.

This can be a delightful, quick and simple weeknight dinner, with extras going towards lunch the next day. But shelling edamame is not a process that benefits from economies of scale. I would steer clear from meal-prepping this recipe, unless you can get edamame already shelled, or if you have someone to help (which gets me thinking – shelling edamame could be a way to involve young children in the kitchen).

Dramatis Personae

Edamame

If bought whole and raw, they need to be blanched in salted water and shelled. Out of curiosity I did a little experiment, and found that the shelled and edible weight is about half of the gross weight. Read on to see the pictures.

Ground pork

Substitute if you like with other ground meat, but the relatively neutral flavour of the pork will let the other ingredients shine. The ratio of edamame to pork is entirely up to you. I went with a rough 1:1 ratio by weight, and allowed 200g uncooked weight of beans and pork per portion.

Pickled snow cabbage

The bringer of brininess, umami and acidity. Probably sold at the Asian grocer near you. 300g for 10 meals is a conservative portion size, which you can double if you like your food super tangy.

Aromatics

Garlic is mandatory as always, but anything else like shallots or ginger would be nice additions. Finely diced chilli peppers are the exclusive preserve of those who live life on the edge.

Sauce

Begin with soy sauce, adjust with sugar as desired. You might want to add a bit of vinegar if you want more acidity in isolation without the extra salinity that would come from adding more pickled snow cabbage.

Executive summary

1. Bring water to a boil. Wash and blanche edamame in salted water, then allow to cool and drain.
2. Shell the edamame. Realise the grave mistake of trying to meal prep edamame.
3. Enlist SO’s help in shelling edamame. Turn it into a competition to see who can shell quicker.
4. Brown ground pork in a pan, then add aromatics and pickled snow cabbage.
5. Add shelled edamame and soy sauce. Stir to combine.
6. Serve with rice.

Play by Play

Bring a pot of salted water to boil while you give them a rinse. Blanche for 3 to 5 minutes then drain well. Let them steam, carrying the heat away.

Our little experiment. Let’s shell 99 grams of edamame and see how much beans we get …

49g. About half the weight, and a third the volume.

Ingredients assemble! That white bowl I have is about 20cm or 8 inches across. 2kg of edamame yielded 1kg of shelled beans, which more or less completely filled the bowl.

Pickled snow cabbage. Theoretically optional, but not really. They kind of taste like capers, if they were acidic and slightly crunchy.

Browned meat tastes good, but to brown so much ground pork would result in it drying out. Here I lay it out on a pan with some oil to brown it on one surface only. Alas, one must make sacrifices when working at an industrial scale with domestic equipment.

Unceremoniously dumping in the garlic and pickled snow cabbage when I think the pork is about done. They won’t get to sautee in the oil, but I can’t be bothered to stir fry in batches. All that liquid bubbling is karma for me overcrowding my pan, but I did manage to get some browning on the meat.

Shelled edamame join the party. They’re already cooked from the blanch earlier, so all we need to do is heat them back up. Mix to combine.

Sauce and season, taste and adjust.

Quite the line up we have here. 10 meals isn’t too shabby for the 2 hours or so total time for the prep, cooking and cleaning. Having said that, you’d have a much easier time prepping 4 meals instead of 10. If you’re looking for a more meal-prep friendy Asian pork and beans experience, check out Pad Krapao Moo or Pork and String Beans and Preserved Mustard Greens.

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