Edamame Salad with Baby Beets and Greens

For April's Chef Spotlight dinner event, we're highlighting vegetarian and vegan chefs. My friend Robert prepared this dish for the dinner and the recipe comes from Melissa Clark. Melissa isn't quite a vegetarian chef but definitely knows how to write some wonderful recipes, including this vegetarian friendly one!

Melissa Clark writes about cuisine and other products of appetite. After brief forays working as a cook in a restaurant kitchen, and as a professional caterer out of her fifth floor walk-up, Clark decided upon a more sedentary path. She earned an M.F.A. in writing from Columbia University and began a freelance food writing career in 1993. Currently, she writes for such publications as the The New York Times, Food & Wine, Bon Appetit, Travel & Leisure, Wine & Spirits, Forbes.com, Town & Country, and Real Simple. In addition, Clark has written eighteen cookbooks including Chef Interrupted: Delicious Chefs Recipes You can Actually Make at Home (Clarkson Potter). She also collaborates on chefs' cookbooks, such as Braise, a collection of recipes with Chef Daniel Boulud, The Last Course, a collaboration with former Gramercy Tavern pastry chef Claudia Fleming, and East of Paris, with Chef David Bouley of Bouley and Danube restaurants in New York City. Her collaboration with chef Peter Berley, The Modern Vegetarian Kitchen, received both a James Beard award and Julia Child Cookbook award in 2000. Recently, she completed her first diet and lifestyle book to answer the oft-asked question "how can you be a food writer and a size 2?" The Skinny: How to Fit into Your Little Black Dress Forever (Meredith Books), which she wrote with health writer and longtime friend Robin Aronson, came out in December, 2006.-- MelissaClark.net

Edamame Salad with Baby Beets and Greens
recipe from Melissa Clark

4 small beets (1 ounce each), trimmed, 1/2 cup greens reserved
2 cups shelled edamame (1/2 pound)
1 tablespoon rice vinegar
2 teaspoons soy sauce
1 1/2 teaspoons Asian sesame oil
1 teaspoon finely grated fresh ginger
2 scallions, finely chopped
1 tablespoon julienned basil


In a large saucepan, set a steamer basket over 1/2 inch of water and bring to a boil. Add the beets, cover and cook over moderate heat until tender, about 20 minutes. Check the water level in the pan halfway through steaming and add more as needed. Transfer the beets to a plate.

Steam the edamame in the same steamer basket until tender, about 5 minutes. Rinse the edamame in cold water to cool, then pat dry with paper towels. Peel and cut the beets into wedges.

In a medium bowl, stir the rice vinegar with the soy sauce, sesame oil and grated ginger. Add the edamame, beets, scallions and beet greens and toss to coat. Sprinkle the basil on top before serving.