This 7-ingredient salad with homemade dressing is delicious and I’ve been eating a lot of it.

I used to frequent, on a far too often basis, a small Japanese eatery that serves this salad. I liked it so much I would deliberately go back just to eat it. Now, that I think about how often I went back, I realise I must have been quite mad. I say quite mad because, waiting for a carpark lot is one of my pet peeves and parking there can be close to a nightmare. I think I was so into the salad, I was coming up with excuses to eat it. When I finally did admit to myself that it was nonsensical to be circling around the carpark for sometimes 15 minutes just for a salad, I made more excuses to go back. After all, I told myself, I had to make sure I have the taste imprinted in my mind. 

As I was coming up with the recipe for the sesame dressing, it occurred to me that the Japanese eatery very likely bought their sesame sauce. You can certainly buy the salad dressing but have your read the list of ingredients at the back of the bottle? There are ingredients in there that read, “enzymatically decomposed yolk and salt”. I am not joking.  You buy the sesame dressing if you like. I am sure the better quality ones would be good but given a choice I would rather not have a “decomposed yolk” pass through my lips. 

Avocado Salad With Homemade Japanese Sesame & Apple Sauce Dressing

Prep: 20 minutes 
Cook:  ~5 minutes to toast sesame seeds
Inactive: –
Level: Easy
Serves: ~4 as a side salad, 2 as a meal
Oven Temperature: –
Can recipe be doubled? Yes
Make ahead? 2 hours before serving, ingredients can be cut and each ingredient tightly wrapped individually in plastic wrap to avoid drying out and discolouration. Refrigerate.

Ingredients

1 cup=250ml=8.45US fl oz

1 Tablespoon sesame seeds
1 to 2 avocados
1 cup baby tomatoes cut
5 cups lettuce leaves cut
1/4 cup purple cabbage shredded
3/4 cup red apple cut
3/4 cup seedless cucumber cut
1/2 cup of my homemade Sesame Applesauce Salad Dressing

Method

Toast seeds
1. Heat up a frying pan. Once hot, toast the sesame seeds. Stir the seeds to avoid burning.
2. When it starts to smell fragrant and turn a light golden brown, turn off the heat and remove the pan from the burner.
3. Transfer to a plate. If you leave it in the pan, it might start to burn in the residual heat. Cool.

Prep vegetables
1. All vegetables/apple should be thoroughly chilled before assembling salad.
2. Cut vegetables/apple as shown in the photograph:
(i) purple cabbage in 1″ (2.5cm) length slivers.
(ii) apple cut into matchstick size.
(iii) cucumber was sliced diagonally, stacked up and cut at a diagonal into matchstick size.

Assemble
1. Distribute ingredients (except the avocado and sesame seeds) evenly into 4 bowls.
2. Top with the avocado
3. Drizzle with the homemade Sesame Applesauce Salad Dressing and sprinkle sesame seeds.

Tips

If you are concerned about having leftover salad dressing, the dressing is very versatile and can be used as a vegetable dip, sauce over cold udon, blocks of cold tofu… Click this link -> Sesame Applesauce Salad Dressing And Dip for visuals of these dishes.

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These crispy gluten & egg free corn fritters which are highly addictive!