Dip may not be so new — but it's good

I had one avocado left over from making avocado ice cream for our July 1 Food story.

I thought about the bag of shelled edamame in my freezer at home and remembered that a few months ago I wrote a column about making "edamamus," a dip that's a cross between hummus and edamame. I had written, "Next time I'll try mashing an avocado into this recipe and call it Edamole."

Edamame (eh-dah-MAH-meh) is the Japanese term for fresh soybeans. It used to be that they were sold mainly in their flat green pods. But now you can buy them shelled … they look like little lima beans.

That night, I pulverized the avocado in my mini-food processor with a cup of cooked edamame and added a squirt of lime juice and a tablespoon of chopped cilantro. In about 30 seconds, everything was pulverized into a thick, coarse concoction.

Then I added a half-cup of salsa and small can of chopped green chiles and a little garlic powder.

I'm sure if you had some fresh chiles, tomato and garlic, the dip would taste even better, but I was working with what I had on hand.

The result was a chunky, green-ish dip. Since it tasted more like guacamole than edamame, I decided to christen it "Guacamame."

I thought it was a great new invention. But the next day, I searched online and found quite a few edamame/guacamole hybrids. It just shows that there are very few recipes that someone else hasn't already though of.

Because of the edamame, the dip has less fat and more protein than regular guacamole. But it still packs some calories, because a medium-size avocado contains 30 fat grams. Most of the fat is monounsaturated, or the "good" kind, though. Avocados also have lots of potassium and fiber, and they're rich in B vitamins, as well as vitamin E and vitamin K.

Nutrition-wise, edamame are pretty good for you, too. A cup provides 189 calories, 17 grams of protein, more than 30 percent of the daily value for fiber, 20 percent for iron, 16 percent for vitamin C, and 10 percent for calcium.

Contrary to what a lot of people think, though, edamame are not fat-free; they're about one-third fat, most of it unsaturated.

But that's not so bad when compared with other protein-rich foods. A cup of cheddar cheese is 532 calories, about 75 percent of it fat; and a cup of dry-roasted mixed nuts is 814 calories, about 75 percent of it fat.

So I'm pretty sure that scooping your chips in Guacamame is better than goopy fake-cheese nacho dip or anything that involves sour cream.

I guess the next goal is to get the fat out of the chips.

GUACAMAME

1 avocado

1 cup cooked edamame

1 teaspoon lime juice

1 tablespoon cilantro

1/2 cup salsa

1 small can chopped green chiles

1/2 teaspoon garlic powder

Process the avocado, edamame, lime juice and cilantro in a food processor for about 30 seconds, until almost smooth. Add salsa, chiles, and garlic powder. Serve with chips or crunchy vegetables.

e-mail: vphillips@desnews.com