Hi there
In japan, they have places called izakaya which is like drinking houses where you can gather your friends to drink your heart out and at the same time pig out on their delicious snacks, not the boring peanuts and crackers but real food in small options called otsumami which goes perfectly well with your drinks. 🙂
And these few days, I have been seeing the baby tomatoes looking oh so fresh and happy bright red, just couldn’t resist to buy some to whip up a salad or two. 🙂
As I am always intrigue by how simple yet how delicious those otsumami dishes can be, I have decided to combine both the tomatoes to make it a nice summer dish.
This is one dish which I have tried before and it is so simple but it packed a punch and goes so great with a icy cold beer 😀 I paired it up with various dressing as well, and make it my own version as a side salad or even a side dish, with some beef slices.
Ingredients
- Baby cherry tomatoes x half pack
- Shiso leaves x 6 pieces
- Lemon rind x 2 peels finely sliced
- Garlic x 1 clove, finely chopped
- Salad dressing – pair it with sesame dressing / citrus dressing / ponzu citrus soya sauce / actually this goes well with most dressing besides thousand island haha..
Directions
1) Sautéed the crushed garlic in a little oil, olive oil is good but actually any kind will do 🙂 lift up your pan while cooking it so the garlic will not get burnt
2) Make an incision like a small cross at the base of the tomato. Blanch it in hot water for 30 secs. Immediately sieve it out, run under cold water or transfer into a bowl of ice water. The skin of the tomato will be easily peeled off
3) You can deseed it or leave it as it is Note : it is perfectly fine if you prefer to prepare this dish with uncooked tomatoes, skin on. this is just personal preference. 🙂
Now chopped the shiso leaves like this
4) All you need to do is just mix the tomatoes with shiso leaves, some lemon rinds or a good splash of lemon juice, drizzle your favourite dressing and now you have yourself a summer healthy colorful and very delicious salad.
By the way, do you know tomato has a higher nutritious values when they are cooked rather than raw? I guess I have just upped its nutritious values by a notch 🙂
Oh you can also toss this with some spaghetti to make it a summer pasta too. Easy isn’t it? 🙂 Big on flavour and Easy on the waistline! haha..
Happy Cooking!
QUICK & SIMPLE JAPANESE SALAD RECIPES : GARLIC SHISO TOMATO SALAD
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Cheers,
Dawn