Corn and Edamame Succotash

Corn and edamame succotash is your new favorite side dish, great for any time of the year. Vegetarian and loaded with protein.

Forgive us if we make a Warner Brothers joke here, but "sufferin' succotash," this dish is GOOD STUFF! If you're looking to use up some frozen veggies like edamame and corn, along with new ways to enjoy them, this side dish is for you. It comes together really quickly and couldn't be simpler. You can make it ahead, you can make it at the last minute, but whatever you do, just make this plant-based, high-protein meal prep!

And let's just pause for a moment about the origins of this dish. You may be wondering, cartoon jokes aside, where this came from. It's a dish that is believed to have been introduced to the colonists by Native Americans and typically includes corn and lima beans. Ours is a bit of a twist on that.

Corn and Edamame Succotash Ingredients

• 1 Tbsp. olive or avocado oil
• ½ cup diced onion
• 1 cup diced red bell pepper
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 ½ cups frozen corn
• 1 ½ cups frozen shelled edamame
• 1 tsp. smoked paprika
• Salt and pepper to taste
• Fresh lemon juice
• Optional ingredient: chopped fresh cilantro

How to Make Corn and Edamame Succotash

Cook the garlic, onion, and peppers together in a skillet with a bit of oil. This will only take a few minutes, just until the ingredients have softened a bit and become aromatic. Then, add in the frozen corn and shelled edamame and stir together with the rest of the ingredients, adding the smoked paprika, salt, and pepper to taste. Again, this cooks fast. The heat of the pan will quickly defrost the frozen veggies. Finish it off with fresh lemon juice and optional chopped fresh cilantro. And that's that!

How to Serve and Store Corn and Edamame Succotash

We love this for an easy meal prep. This will keep in airtight containers in the fridge for up to 4 days or so. You can eat this cold, at room temperature, or warm it back up if you like. But it feels like a simple side dish you don't really need to do too much with to make it delicious. Sometimes fewer ingredients are better, as long as those ingredients are really good ones.

This succotash is a side dish that goes with a lot of mains. Try it with something like fried, barbecued, or roasted chicken, spicy shrimp, fried catfish, ham, or even a grilled flank steak. It goes with a lot of different foods, but we keep feeling like chicken is the winner here. I mean, we did put it in the photo with the prepped containers and everything.

Substitutions and Alterations

Corn is traditional, and so are lima beans, so feel free to swap limas for edamame. You could also use something pretty neutral tasting like white beans if you've got those on hand, but they're not as firm as edamame. The texture will be different, and you'll want to add the white beans separately, after the corn cooks, because otherwise, they'll get too mushy. They'll just need to be heated through.

You could also use parsley instead of cilantro (we understand, cilantro can be divisive), and lime juice instead of lemon juice, and it will still be flavorful and work ok.

Regular paprika can be swapped for smoked, or a good chili powder would work if you don't have paprika at all or want to try something a little different.

And of course, feel free to use an orange, yellow, or green bell pepper instead, but we're fond of the red ones because it brings another colorful veggie into the mix here. But use what you've got and it'll still be great.

MORE CORN, EDAMAME, AND OTHER DELICIOUS COMBOS!

• $4 Edamame Pasta with Tofu and Veggies
• Sheet Pan Butter Herb Shrimp Corn and Potato Bake
• Mexican Street Corn Dip