Linda Funk: Hi! I am Linda Funk. I'm the Executive Director of the Soyfoods Council, and today, we're going to talk about edamame. What is edamame anyway?

It is a sweet green soybean. Nobody believes that it's really part of that soybean family but it is, and it comes in the pod or shelled. In the pod, what you do is put it in the microwave or on top of the range and steam it. Take it out, put it on the serving plate, maybe sprinkle a little salt over it, and then serve it. What people do is take it, pop it open and eat the soybeans. The pod is not edible; it's a little too fibrous.

Today, what we're going to do is talk about taking the shelled edamame and making edamame hummus. Hummus has become so popular and typically it's made out of garbanzo beans, but today, we're going to use the shelled edamame.

So all we do is take one-and-a-half cups of shelled edamame that have been cooked according to the package directions. Put them into our food processor. Then what we're going to do is quickly process them to start getting them into a smooth mixture.

So now we're going to start adding our flavoring ingredients. First thing is a tablespoon of soybean oil or vegetable oil. Most vegetable oil in the supermarket is really soybean oil. So one tablespoon, a half teaspoon of cumin, which adds really a nice flavoring, two cloves of garlic minced, and about a half teaspoon of salt. Let's process that.

At this point it's still a little thick. So we're going to add three tablespoons of lemon juice and three tablespoons of water.

Okay, now let's take a look at the consistency, and I think it's just about right for the hummus. So all we will do is take the processing bowl, remove it and start putting the edamame hummus into our serving dish. Then you can serve it with some vegetables really to get some more vegetables into your daily diet.

Today I have some fresh green beans, some carrots, broccoli, cauliflower and some soy crisp, and it's the savory soy crisp that you would want to serve with this edamame hummus. And that's all there is to it.

For more information, go to thesoyfoodscouncil.

com, where there's a lot more recipes, and the most up-to-date health information on soy protein.