Recipe: Sufferin' succotash

Lent starts this week, which means food-themed holidays (or should that be "holiday-themed foods"?), such as pancakes on Shrove Tuesday and King Cake for Mardi Gras. Dear Husband and I were invited to a Louisiana-style shin dig this weekend that was unfortunately cancelled due to the death of one of the hostesses' grandmothers. Based on a positive experience with succotash at Rooster's Uptown in Charlotte, NC (my Yelp review), I had planned to bring succotash to share and ended up re-purposing it as a side dish to some grilled veggie wraps inspired by this crepe meal (click for FrDrDr recipe). Not knowing who all would attend, I had chosen to make a vegan version that everyone could enjoy.

Main dish: zucchini and squash sauteed with oil and salt,

then served on tortillas with ricotta and mixed Turkish spices.

Over at Idiomation, Elyse Bruce explains that "succotash" is a portmanteau of the Narragansett words for the ingredients of the dish: manusqussedash (beans) + misickquatash (ear of corn) + asquutasquash (squash). Its first known use is in a New England diary in 1751. The mixture didn't suffer for another century, until Victorian sensibilities turned religious curses like "Christ" into "crikey" and "Suffering Savior" into "suffering succotash."

Herbed Corn & Edamame Succotash Cook by: Kathy Farrell-Kingsley (Eating Well)

Ingredients;
1½ cups frozen edamame
1 tablespoon canola oil
½ cup chopped red bell pepper
¼ cup chopped onion
2 cloves garlic, minced
2 cups corn kernels
3 tablespoons dry white wine or water
2 tablespoons rice vinegar
2 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley
1 teaspoon dried basil
½ teaspoon salt
Freshly ground pepper to taste

1. Cook edamame in a large saucepan of lightly salted water until tender, about 4 minutes or according to package directions. Drain well.
2. Heat oil in a large nonstick skillet over medium heat. Add bell pepper, onion and garlic; cook, stirring frequently, until vegetables start to soften, about 2 minutes. Stir in corn, wine (or water) and the edamame; cook, stirring frequently, for 4 minutes. Remove from the heat. Stir in vinegar, parsley, basil, salt and pepper. Serve immediately.

Make Ahead Tip: Cover and refrigerate for up to 2 days. Ingredient Note: Edamame are easy to digest and are exceptionally high in protein ( ½ cup has 16 grams). There are several kinds available today—frozen and fresh, in the pod and shelled—in large supermarkets, natural-foods stores or Asian markets.

Unfortunately, I was underwhelmed by the finished product. My biggest complaint was that it was too watery. If I were to make this again, I would skip the white wine/water and splurge for the red bell pepper instead of the cheaper green that didn't stand out as well against the edamame. Perhaps if I had had some onion it would have punched up the flavor. As some commenters had remarked on the original online recipe, this dish is better cold.