There is something appealing about eating food with your hands, instinctual almost.

Children will predominately choose their hands over cutlery and Vedic traditions suggest that we all partake at least sometimes, linking eating with our hands with also feeding our mind and spirit. Science has also stepped in and attributed eating with our hands with readying our digestion. Touch being one of the main sensors of our body signals the brain to ready the stomach, therefore improving digestion. Science has also shown an increased mindfulness of the food we are eating when utilizing our hands.

For me it’s about easy eating. Little tasty treats casually tossed into my mouth in a joyful way. Nuts and seeds, popcorn, chocolate coated cranberries, crispy mini falafel balls and Edamame.

In our house they are referred to as poppy-out-beans and for a very good reason. When eaten from the pod, with inexperienced hands they can pop out and fly across the room. Always to much joy and laughter from us all and sometimes to a pod popping race. Apart from being a joy to eat they are also nutritionally packed. Edamame are the young pods of soy beans, picked before they pods harden. These little beans are full of great nutrition, fiber, protein, magnesium and folate and vitamin K. Edamame can sometimes be found fresh at some farmers markets but can be found all year round frozen at an Asian grocers.

In our house we cook them simply and quickly with oil, garlic and salt. The dish takes about 7 minutes from start to finish. The perfect snack or side to any meal. There are infinite combinations, like a choose your own adventure novel, to use for flavours, add chilli flakes, cook in bacon fat instead of oil, chop through prosciutto, come crunchy fried speck or even some lemon zest grated over at the end. And they are great eaten cold, so they make great additions to lunch boxes for both the big and small in the house.