The significance of three factors studied is in the order: AD time > air temperature > microwave power from polar difference analyses (Table 3). In the treatments tested, air drying for 20 min (treatment nos. 1, 6, and 8) exhibited the highest synthetic evaluation index, which can be attributed to increase in the drying rate and reduction in quality damage of edamame; and brought down the moisture content to less than 50% (w.b.), which greatly decreased the mass loads of microwave dryer. Since microwave power was the least significant factor affecting the synthetic evaluation index, it was determined to assume a lower level of 9.33 W/g rather than 11.67 W/g in the best treatment (treatment no. 8) so as to control energy consumption and overheating of edamames. The drying time was correspondingly prolonged to 15 min, a minor and tolerable increase from 12 min in the best treatment (treatment no. 8). The optimal combination AD-VMD drying process was thus obtained: 70 C hot air was used to heat the edamames for 20 min in the prophase, and then vacuum micro-