Serves: 3-4
Cost: n/a
Preparation time: ~20 minutes
Calories: n/a
Hi again everyone, I hope you’ve been enjoying the guest posts from Eva, Helene and Sissi so far. Today I have another wonderful post from Nami, over at Just One Cookbook. I’m honoured to have Nami’s beautiful recipe and photographs here. The amount of effort she puts into her posts and presentation is enormous and the dishes she posts never cease to entice and amaze me. In addition to her wonderful food she recently took a trip back to her home country, Japan, and posted some great photos of her trip! I’m sure many of my readers will be familiar with Nami, but in case you’re not, do go and check out her wonderful site.
Nami concentrates on, as she says below, “quick and easy Japanese home cooking” and you’ll always be able to get some great ideas from her. Over the months that I’ve been reading Nami’s blog I’ve learnt techniques, tips and ingredients which not only I’ve never tried before, but some of them I’d never heard of – maybe I’ve been living under a rock, but I’d never heard of matcha until I started reading Nami’s site.
I hope you enjoy the beautiful post today, I’ll be back in a few days with an announcement, and then after that another great guest post! Thanks everyone!
Find Nami on: JustOneCookbook | Facebook | Twitter | Pinterest | Google+
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Greetings everyone! My name is Nami and I share quick and easy Japanese home cooking at my blog, Just One Cookbook. I’m here today to blog sit FiveEuroFood while Charles is busy with his commitments away from his site. I’m honored to be here and share my recipe with you, and I hope you will enjoy my post.
I prepared a very refreshing salad using Japanese radish called daikon. Daikon is a mild flavored, very large, white radish, and it’s often used as garnishing of sashimi or grated and served with agedashi tofu or tempura. For this salad, I shredded daikon into long thin strips so that it gives a nice crunchy texture while you eat. Daikon is widely available at Asian markets and sometimes even in Western supermarkets in the US. To pick a good daikon, just make sure the inside looks juicy and not dry. If you are also able to get organic daikon, I highly recommend it since the flavor is much better than conventional ones.
As for the salad dressing, I used my favorite dressing base – ponzu sesame vinaigrette, and this time I added umeboshi. Umeboshi are salted pickled Japanese ume (plums). They are a common ingredient for onigiri (rice ball) and you might have also seen a single umeboshi placed in the center of the rice inside a bento (Japanese lunchbox). The salty sour flavor from umeboshi adds a nice kick to the dressing. If you cannot find umeboshi, don’t worry, you can still use this ponzu sesame vinaigrette for the recipe. Ponzu is a citrus-based soy sauce and it’s used as a dip for Shabu Shabu and sashimi, or used as a dressing.
I hope you enjoy this post and will give this salad a try one day. Thank you Charles for allowing me to share my recipe with your readers. Now let’s start cooking!
Daikon Salad with Japanese Plum Dressing
Ingredients
For the Daikon Salad
- 3 inches (7.5cm) of daikon (Japanese radish)
- 3 bunches of mizuna (optional. You can use cucumber or micro greens etc)
- 3 shiso leaves (perilla) (optional)
- 2tbsp. katsuobushi (bonito flakes) for garnish (optional)
- 2tbsp. ikura (salmon roe) for garnish (optional)
For the Japanese Plum Dressing
- 1 umeboshi (Japanese pickled plum – see photo below)
- 3tbsp. ponzu
- 1tbsp. sesame oil
- 1tbsp. rice vinegar
- 1/2 tbsp. soy sauce
- 1/8 tsp. sugar
Instructions
- With a mandolin slicer, shred daikon to thread pieces.
- Soak shredded daikon in cold water for 5-10 minutes to get the crunchy texture and get rid of the bitter flavor.
- Cut mizuna into 3 inch lengths.
- Chiffonade shiso leaves.
- Combine all the salad ingredients in a bowl and toss it all together.
- Remove the seed from umeboshi and chop into small pieces.
- Combine all the dressing ingredients in a small bowl and whisk all together.
- Serve chilled. Sprinkle katsuobushi (bonito flakes) and ikura (salmon roe) if you like. Pour the dressing when you are ready to serve. Enjoy!
Hi Charles! Thank you again for inviting me to your blog and letting me share a Japanese recipe with your readers! It was my pleasure and thank you for the kind mention as well. Hope your readers will enjoy this recipe. 🙂
Thanks so much for the beautiful guest post Nami – I love daikon… it’s such a big, beautiful vegetable (is it considered as “vegetable”?) but I never really know what to do with it. It’s so wonderful to have this dish which I can try now. Not sure if I can find some of the things… Mizuna for example, but I will ask in the Japanese supermarket in Paris. Can’t wait to give it a try – fantastic photos as always too – such beautiful styling!
Thanks so much again!
I have daikon growing in my garden also have umeboshi in the fridge, don’t have all the other ingredients but will try to find them or make substitute.
Thanks for featuring Nami, Charles, I am one of her follower.
Thank you Norma! I’m jealous of your organic daikon from your garden! It must be extra delicious and perfect for this daikon salad! 🙂 Daikon & ponzu is a great match – hope you can find it in Asian market.
What a gorgeous post! I know all about shiso leaves thanks to Sissi so I feel somewhat on top of this delightful dish ;-). I might still have to make a trip to my favourite Asian market to assemble a few of the other ingredients though I appreciate the substitution suggestions Nami. The salmon roe is simply luminous in this salad and your plum dressing sounds lip smacking delicious! Thanks Nami & Charles.
Thank you Kelly! I know, I have to say I thought about her when I was making this dish, too. LOL. Thank you for your kind comment Kelly! 🙂
I read nami’s blog so often! really happy to see her here! nami, as usual, wonderful beautiful recipe! and charles, I really enjoy your choice of bloggers, but do hope to see you back (:
Hi Shuhan! Thank you for following my blog. 🙂 I know, we miss Charles very much here. 😉
Hi Charles – The salad looks so refreshing and delicious! Thank you for featuring one of my favorite bloggers. Sorry I haven’t visited lately. I was so busy this summer.
Hi Hyosan! Thank you for the compliment. I hope you had a wonderful summer. Mine was really busy with the kids but now I feel my life is even busier with the kids in school and all the activities. I wish I can go back to summer. Haha. Thanks for your kind comment!
Hello, Nami. So great to see you sharing your wonderful recipes on Charles’s blog. This salad looks beautiful. The daikon is so neatly cut and the other ingredients add colour and bold flavours to that clean white palette of the daikon.
Thanks! Daikon’s white color stands out especially when it’s prepared for salad. I sometimes use peeler to make similar salad, and that time daikon becomes see through (translucent?) and so pretty! I used to cut into strips with my hands, but now I have this great mandolin to do the job. 😀
Hi Charles and Nami! Nice to see you both here :). Charles, hope you are enjoying your time away! Nami, what a beautiful salad – the plum dressing sounds divine!
Thanks so much Laura! 🙂
Hi Nami, this looks so simple to make and healthy too. I never could figure out how to use daikon, I need to be a bit more adventurous with my veggies. I love making homemade dressing, so this one I’ll definitely will make. Great guest post!
Thank you so much Lisa! In Japanese cooking, daikon is used in many didshes. I hope to share more daikon recipes on my blog. Thank you for your kind comment!
Spotty Internet service in Budapest is making it very frustrating to comment. I know I would love this salad and will try to make it upon our return home in October.
Thank you Eva! Pudapest – oh how wonderful! Have a great safe trip!
It’s lovely to see Nami over on your site, Charles, she is such a wonderful person and her blog is amazing. I’ve never made a daikon salad and after looking at this I’m not sure why I haven’t. I will look forward to trying this xx
I know, daikon is definitely not in Western dishes, especially like this. It’s so delicious that you will be surprised how wonderful for daikon to be eaten like this. This is one of my secret surprise salad for people who never tried daikon before. They get very addicting with crispy texture and matching dressing! 🙂
This is a beautiful salad Nami! So simple and fresh. I would absolutely love this as a first course to my sushi. Perhaps I’ll have to make it this winter (Mike and I always do one homemade sushi night in the winter months). As always – I just love your photos too!
Oh yes, sushi and daikon salad! It will be a nice cleansing palate factor and nice break between sushi pieces. Great idea Kristy! 🙂 Thanks for your comment!
What a lovely guest post! Hi Nami! Hi Charles! Gorgeous, gorgeous pictures!
I love daikon esp those yellow pickled ones that my cousin calls the “diabolical pickle”. This looks so refreshing and I’ve never used pickled plums in a dressing before. It sound delicious! I will definitely try this soon. Thanks!
Hi Ping! Actually “Ume Dressing” is one of the famous flavor in Japanese style dressing. We use these soft pickled plums for a lot of dishes and sauce. I’m glad you liked the recipe. Thank you!
Oh what a great reason to pull out my mandolin! 🙂 I love daikon and this salad sounds like something that I would thoroughly enjoy! Beautiful post as always Nami! Hey Charles! Hope you all are having a fabulous weekend!
You are right! It makes my job easier with the mandolin slicer… but I used to cut into thin strips by myself too. Just takes more time….but the result is pretty much same. 🙂 Thanks for your sweet comment MJ!
I adore Daikon and will definitely be looking forward to having it this way.
Thanks so much! 😀
Nami, it’s such a joyful and beautiful way to start playing with autumn vegetables! Salmon roe makes this salad look so elegant! I love daikon, umeboshi, shiso, katsuobushi… I also am a big fan of your ponzu dressing. In short, it’s a salad I will be making very soon.
Haha, great! I was thinking about you when I made this. 🙂
I love her blog, too Charles. Nice job on this nice salad Nami. Thanks for featuring her in your blog C! 🙂
Thank you so much for your sweet comment Yudith! I’m glad you liked my guest post. 🙂
Hi Nami,
Nice to meet you! The contrast of the salmon roe on this salad adds such interest! I’ve never made anything with daikon, but I’m inspired to try it now. There’s a little shop at the market where I’m hoping to find the ingredients. I’m so glad that you included photos of the Japanese pickled plum — now I know what to look for.
Thank you Barb! I know Japanese ingredients can be a little bit difficult to find in some area, but this dressing works great without plum, and the rest of ingredients should be easy to find in Asian/Chinese market even though you don’t have Japanese market around. 🙂 Thank you for your kind comment, and it’s nice to meet you too!
Two of my favorite bloggers in one spot, how good does it get? It’s springtime here and all I want to eat are salads. Can’t wait to try this one. Nami’s recipes are always perfect!
Aww thank you Maureen! It probably “looks” that way. 😉 If I post this on Japanese food blog, it’s very common… or at least something we eat pretty often, you know. LOL. Thank you for your sweet words!
Thank you Nami-san. I love ponzu sauce so I knew right off the bat that I would love this recipe. Any recommendations for perilla substitutes? Take Care, BAM
Hi Bam! Perilla is not necessary although it gives a nice fragrance to it. I think somewhere in HK has this because of Japanese residents there.. I wish I know… There is no good substitute for this that tastes and smells like that. 🙁
Hi Charles! Visiting from Nami’s blog! It’s nice to meet you!
Awesome guest post! I’ll definitely be trying this the next time I find daikon.
Thanks Tina for coming over to Charles’ site! 🙂
I always get excited when my favorite bloggers collaborate for a fantastic Food post! For sure nami is very talented and I always love learning new intriguing things about her culture and the way food is prepared in her house. Great job nami! Charles, I guess u are alright that side of the world. =)
Thank you Helene! Hehee, check out today’s post and you will find that out! 🙂
Dear Nami,
I normally used daikon in soups and stews and have also pickled cubed daikon but never thought of a daikon salad like this. Adding salmon roe and bonito flakes is definitely NOT optional for me, it’s a must!
I love those Japanese plums and thanks to the awesome ice-cream maker from Maureen at Orgasmic Chef, I am hoping to try and make sour plum sorbet and ice cream with these too.
That’s what I heard from Maureen that you won the ice cream maker and we’ve been waiting for your ice cream post!! 😉 Plum sorbet? That sounds amazing. Daikon is used for salad for a long time in Japan. You just need to use really juicy one not dried one – some in Asian stores are ridiculous dry that I wonder if it’s really same daikon as Japanese ones. haha.
nami rocks doesn’t she? She is a wonderful as well as cook! I love this salad and the crunchiness to it! Great post
Thanks Jessica! You must know that I’m always wishing that I could be your neighbor – ever since I found your blog over a year ago! 😉
What a lovely lovely salad!!! I am so tempted to try this right away. Great post Nami :))
Thank you very much Minnie and nice to meet you!
Daikon has such a nice flavor, and this recipe showcases it so beautifully! Really good stuff – thanks so much.
Thank you so much John! 🙂
Thank you Nami and Charles. This was a lovely post. This sounds like a lovely salad…I will have to go searching for the ingredients.
Thank you Karen! 🙂
Nami is just one of the sweetest bloggers around! And what a delicious salad she has shared! I’m not sure I could find all the ingredients, but I’d love to eat it 🙂
Thank you Lizzy! 🙂