Boil frozen edamame for few minutes and drain.
1. Hijiki is a very dark brown wild seaweed. It contains dietary fibre and wide range of minerals and other nutrients good for human body. It usually comes in a dried form which looks like tiny twigs. The colour of dried hijiki is almost black. If you are not in Australia, you can buy them at Japanese grocery stores, or perhaps even in Supermarket (I saw it on Walmart website).
Unfortunately, Australian government restricts commercial importation of hijiki therefore, you won’t be able to buy it from the shops in Australia. However, you can purchase hijiki online or bring it back from Japan for private consumption.
2. You can buy aburaage from Japanese/Asian grocery stores, They are usually sold frozen. More details about aburaage can be found in my post, Shimeji Gohan.
3. I had frozen edamame beans (without pods) in my fridge. But if you only have edamame in pods, boil them in pods and take beans out to make up for 40g (1.4oz). I think there were about 60 beans in my case so you can work out approximate number of pods you need. It’s not critical to have exact amount but I would not add any more than 40g (1.4oz).
4. Other than carrot and aburaage, you can use lotus root, konnyaku and/or boiled soya beans.
5. Hijiki seaweed salad is an excellent make-ahead dish. You can refrigerate it for 3-4 days in an air-tight container.
You can also freeze it. Drain any liquid left in the salad and divide the salad into small batches (if you wish) so that you can defrost small quantities.