Japanese Style Salad with Bitter Greens, Tuna and Edamame Beans

As it often happens in life, happy periods of binging on pasta, potatoes and chocolate are followed by sad periods of remorse with one major question to answer - whether to buy a pant button extender kit or switch to healthier and leaner foods for a while?

If you go for the first option, try Amazon, they offer plenty button extender choices. If you choose the second option, you can start your healthier period with this light Japanese style salad.

I adore Japanese cuisine and think of it as a great and delicious way to keep yourself in shape. This salad features raw tune, so if for some reason you’re against eating raw fish even if it is sashimi grade, replace it with fully cooked salmon or seared tofu.

 You will need:

• Several generous handfuls of mixed green salad (with bitter greens like mizuna, radicchio and such)
• A fillet of albacore or ahi (yellowfin) tuna, as large as you see fit for your salad
• ¼ cup shelled cooked edamame beans
• About 1/8 of a medium sweet onions, thinly sliced
• Salt and black pepper, to taste
• 1-2 tsp vegetable oil for tuna
• Optional additions: fresh cucumber, abura-age (Japanese deepfried tofu), avocado

Dressing:

• About ¼ tsp hondashi*, dissolved in 2-3 tsp cold water, or 1 Tbsp concentrated dashi stock
• 2 tsp low sodium soy sauce
• 1 tsp rice vinegar (4.3% acidity)
• 1 small green onion, sliced on a bias

For the dressing, stir all the ingredients together in a small bowl.

In a salad bowl, toss greens, edamame and onions with the dressing. You may not need all of the dressing for your salad, so store the rest in the refrigerator.

Smear a tuna fillet all over with a bit of oil and sprinkle with salt and black pepper.

On a medium high heat, heat a dry pan. Put the tuna fillet into the pan and quickly sear on all sides so it gets golden brown all over, but stays raw inside.

Remove from the heat, slice and place on top of the salad. Lightly drizzle the tuna pieces with the dressing and serve right away.

*Hondashi is granulated dashi stock, which can be found in Asian stores like Uwajimaya or HT Market. Here’re a couple of varieties of dry dashi stock you can find there. The one in a jar contains MSG (which I have no problems with), the other one is MSG-free.