HOME & GARDEN CONSUMER GUIDE

Enjoy A Japanese Salad Dressing

At Japanese restaurants, one thing I always look forward to is the small mixed salad served before the meal. In particular, I enjoy the orange-colored dressing on top of this salad, because it strikes me as intriguingly familiar yet deliciously exotic. Although reminiscent of an old-fashioned, creamy French dressing (which was an American invention, by the way), the taste is unmistakably Asian.

It seems, however, that this salad and its carrot-based dressing are being served less frequently these days. I asked my friend Elizabeth Andoh, an American living in Japan who is an expert on their food and culture, if the same thing is happening there. Her answer was yes – and no. She said that Western-style cooking remains popular in Japan, and sauces of this general type are still served regularly, but this particular salad dressing is not used as often as it once was.

Cooking in Japan is very much influenced by food fashions and fads, she said. This dressing, for example, was created back in the 1970s. It is an example of yoshoku ryoori, an approach that adapts Western-style cooking to the Japanese palate. A fresh, garden salad was then a novel idea in Japan, where meals were traditionally accompanied by pickled vegetables. To make a dressing that would appeal to Japanese tastes, cooks turned to the miso-thickened sauces they already knew. They also employed another much-used thickening technique – adding very finely grated vegetables or fruit, such as carrot, daikon radish, and apple. Both methods remain common in Japanese cooking, says Andoh.

To American home cooks, few cuisines seem as daunting as Japanese, despite the fact that Japanese restaurants are everywhere in the U.S. and sushi is almost as familiar as pizza. Certainly, few Americans attempt to make Japanese dishes. This version of a low-fat, carrot- based Japanese dressing might just inspire you to try more recipes from this brilliantly lean cuisine, which offers so many flavorful, easy ways of preparing vegetables, like eggplant grilled with miso, and cooked spinach topped with a nutty, sesame seed sauce.

Mixed Salad with Japanese Dressing

• 1/4 cup reduced-fat mayonnaise dressing
• 1 garlic clove, diced
• 1 Tbsp. sweet or mellow white miso
• 1 tsp. sugar
• 1/2 tsp. wasabi powder or paste
• 1/3 cup carrot juice
• 1 tsp. rice vinegar
• 1/4 tsp. toasted sesame oil
• 1 Tbsp. finely grated daikon radish
• 1 large bag mixed salad greens
• 1 small carrot, finely shredded
• 4 plum tomatoes, quartered lengthwise

Place mayonnaise, garlic, miso, sugar, and wasabi in blender or mini-food processor. Add carrot juice, vinegar, and sesame oil. Whirl until dressing is smooth. (If you do not have a blender or food processor, cream miso into carrot juice in a small bowl using the back of a spoon to combine them.)

Squeeze grated daikon in your hand, making a fist to extract as much moisture as possible. Add daikon to dressing, and blend in well. (For optimum taste, the dressing should be made about an hour before using so that the flavors of the wasabi and daikon have sufficient time to develop and meld with the other ingredients.)

Transfer dressing to a jar or small bottle with tight-fitting lid. Just before adding dressing to the salad, shake vigorously to combine dressing.

Divide greens among four salad plates. Arrange one-quarter of carrots on top of greens. Arrange 4 tomato wedges around the greens, like points of star. Drizzle one-quarter of the dressing over each salad, and serve immediately.

Makes 4 servings.

Per serving: 96 calories, 6 g. total fat (<1 g. saturated fat), 10 g. carbohydrate, 2 g. protein, 3 g. dietary fiber, 310 g. sodium.

By Dana Jacobi for the American Institute for Cancer Research
“Something Different” is written for the American Institute for Cancer Research (AICR) by Dana Jacobi, author of The Joy of Soy, and recipe creator for AICR’s Stopping Cancer Before It Starts.