Edamame Salad with Feta & Roast Beef
Edamame, avocado, roast beef, feta, and a handful of pumpkin seeds. Five minutes of cutting, mixing, and done. Zero cooking. The result is 53 grams of protein and 806 calories in a cold salad that does not need a dressing because the avocado and feta do the job themselves.
Stir everything together in a bowl and the avocado breaks down just enough to coat the edamame in a creamy layer. Feta crumbles into the gaps. Roast beef strips fold through with the kind of savory weight that turns a vegetable bowl into a meal. Pumpkin seeds scattered across the top add the crunch. Serve it with two slices of whole wheat bread and the whole plate lands at 21 grams of fiber, enough to keep this holding well past the mid-afternoon slump.
Edamame, avocado, roast beef, feta, and a handful of pumpkin seeds. Five minutes of cutting, mixing, and done. Zero cooking. The result is 53 grams of protein and 806 calories in a cold salad that does not need a dressing because the avocado and feta do the job themselves.
Stir everything together in a bowl and the avocado breaks down just enough to coat the edamame in a creamy layer. Feta crumbles into the gaps. Roast beef strips fold through with the kind of savory weight that turns a vegetable bowl into a meal. Pumpkin seeds scattered across the top add the crunch. Serve it with two slices of whole wheat bread and the whole plate lands at 21 grams of fiber, enough to keep this holding well past the mid-afternoon slump.
Ingredients
- edamame 5 ounces
- avocado 0.5
- roast beef 4 slices
- feta cheese, crumbled 2 ounces
- pumpkin seeds 1 ounce
- bread, whole wheat 2 slices
Method
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Rinse the edamame beans in a colander with cold water and let them drain.
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Dice the avocado flesh. Cut the roast beef into strips.
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Mix the avocado with roast beef, feta and edamame beans in a bowl. Stir well.
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Sprinkle the pumpkin seeds over the edamame salad, season with pepper and salt, and serve with the (toasted) bread.
Dice the avocado into pieces slightly larger than you think you need. When you stir everything together in step 3, the softer edges break down into a natural coating that binds the salad, while the firmer chunks hold their shape and give you something to bite into. Two textures from one ingredient, no dressing required.
Why This Works
Behind this recipe
Is 53 grams of protein in one sitting too much?
Research shows muscle protein synthesis is not capped at 20–30 grams per meal, as the old rule suggested. A meta-analysis found that total daily protein intake matters more than how you split it across meals. This salad’s 53 grams from four sources — edamame, roast beef, feta, and pumpkin seeds — contribute to your daily total without waste.
Read the full evidence reviewWhy does this salad have 53 grams of fat?
Three ingredients contribute most of the fat, each a different type. Avocado delivers monounsaturated fat. Feta adds saturated fat from dairy. Pumpkin seeds add polyunsaturated fat, including omega-6 fatty acids. At 806 calories, the fat content is high — but this is a single-plate meal designed to carry you through the afternoon, not a side dish.
Does the soy in edamame block iron absorption?
Soy protein contains phytate, which does reduce non-heme iron absorption from plant sources. But this recipe also contains roast beef, which provides heme iron — a form that bypasses phytate inhibition entirely. Research on iron bioavailability found that heme iron absorption is not affected by the same compounds that block plant-based iron. The combination of both iron types in one meal gives your body two independent absorption pathways.
Read the full evidence review
