Edamame and Tuna Rice: Inspired by Memories of School Lunches

I used to think that edamame tastes best when eaten straight out of the pot, right after boiling.
But recently, I’ve found another favorite way to eat it.

It’s edamame mixed with canned tuna in rice.

Actually, this combination brings back nostalgic memories for me.
When I was in elementary school, we used to have rice with edamame and canned tuna for school lunch. For some reason, I still remember very clearly how delicious it was. Around the time

I settled in Akita, I told my wife this story while we were harvesting edamame, and she said, “Well, let’s give it a try,” and has been recreating it for me every year ever since.

Especially when using edamame fresh from the field, you can really taste the beans’ natural sweetness. The umami and just-right saltiness of the canned tuna, combined with the sweetness of the edamame, make the rice go down a treat.

One of the things I learned after moving to Akita is that Akita is one of Japan’s leading producers of edamame.

Around this time of year, we harvest edamame from our field almost every day.

We pick them, boil them, and eat them just as they are.
And sometimes, we try cooking them, drawing on memories from the past.

The nostalgic flavors I enjoyed in school lunches as a child have now been transformed into a new dish, thanks to the edamame harvested from our own field and my wife’s cooking.