It's a very versatile dish, and the time involved in making it can range from just a few minutes to a half hour or more, depending on your ingredients. If you use just a few, raw, chopped ingredients, then it's a quick throw together meal. Or, if you want more depth, using cooked and raw ingredients, tofu, and so on, then it can take a bit longer. My solution is to take the extra time to make it, but to make enough to last a few days. Then, I'll wait a couple of weeks before making it again so as not to burn them out on it.
Possible ingredients - choose your favorites:
- Cooked brown rice or sushi rice (I used short grain brown rice, but any rice, black rice, wild rice, or even out of the box ideas like red quinoa or even a combination of all the above will work. Or, noodles, but then we're off into other territory.
- Nori - seaweed sheets. Or, you can add kelp. I baked the nori with a spray of olive oil (or an oil rub down with a paper towel) and seasonings until it was crispy, then sliced it into thin ribbons. However, an easy sub is just to tear the nori into strips and toss it in as is.
- Sesame seeds - toss this unhulled sesame seeds into the salad either raw or toasted in a pan on medium for just a few minutes.
- Tofu - an optional ingredient that we used for a protein boost. You can season, then boil, bake, or pan "fry" this and toss the cubes into the salad.
- Raw vegetables - avocado slices, cucumber slices
- Cooked or raw vegetables - carrot shreds, mushrooms (cooked!), cabbage, green onions, spinach, edamame, and so on. (The spinach, I just wilted in a warm pan very briefly but raw is fine, also).
We converted a few favorite dips into dressings - very simple ones. Soy sauce and wasabi are their most used dips. One dressing uses soy sauce, wasabi, ginger, honey, tahini, and a splash of rice vinegar. Another uses soy, wasabi, and water. A third is wasabi, rice vinegar, tahini, soy, pepper and garlic If the dressings are too thick, they can be watered down to spread more easily.
