This gentle soup made an amazing weekday lunch for the two of us. Somehow it managed to be light and filling at the same time, and the subtle flavors of edamame and avocado enhanced each other beautifully.

Edamame means fresh young soy beans in Japanese, and they’re usually cooked and served in their pods. Fresh soy beans are not available in Helsinki, but some Asian markets stock frozen edamame without pods, and that’s what we used in this soup.

The soup only took 15 minutes to prepare from start to finish.

Edamame Avocado Soup (serves 2):

• 5 dl frozen edamame
• 2 teaspoons olive oil
• 1 medium onion, chopped
• 1 small avocado (Hass variety is what we had)
• 5 dl vegetable stock (we had boiling water mixed with 2 teaspoons vegetable broth powder)
• 2 tablespoons dry sherry wine

We first fried the onion in the olive oil until translucent, for about 6 minutes, and then added the rest of the ingredients except for avocado. We brought the soup to a brisk boil, and let it bubble up for five minutes. Now, I removed the pan from heat, let the soup cool down for a few moments, then added the avocado, and puréed the whole thing with our immersion blender until it was very smooth, almost fluffy.

Frozen edamame beans are very pretty.