It takes a mere 10 minutes to make this salad. My Japanese Pasta Salad is a spaghetti salad dressed in Kewpie mayonnaise with Dijon mustard. It is not heavy and is great even as a light meal.
Cook Time depends on the type/brand of pasta you use. My pasta needs 8 minutes to cook al-dente.
Actual Total Time is about 10 minutes as you can do the preparation while cooking the pasta.
Mix the Dressing ingredients in a bowl. If you prefer slightly runny dressing, add milk to adjust consistency.
Add pasta, ham, cucumber and onion slices to the bowl and mix gently ensuring that the dressing coats every strand of spaghetti.
Place lettuce leaves (if using) on a serving plate and place the pasta salad in a mound in the centre.
1. Instead of spaghetti, you can use macaroni if you like.
2. I used a slice of leg ham but you can use other hams, even salami.
3. Kewpie mayonnaise is a Japanese brand of mayonnaise. It is creamier than the Western-style mayonnaise and not very sour, or sweet. See the photo of Kewpie mayonnaise in the post Okonomiyaki (Japanese Savoury Pancake). It is sold at major supermarkets.
You can use Western-style mayonnaise instead of Kewpie brand but the flavour of the dressing will be different.
4. This is to take the bite out of the onions. Some onions are sweet and do not have a strong bite. In that case, you can skip this step.
5. You could also add corn kernels and/or julienned carrot to the salad.
6. Nutrition per serving.
serving: 187g calories: 435kcal fat: 20g (31%) saturated fat: 3.3g (16%) trans fat: 0.1g polyunsaturated fat: 10g monounsaturated fat: 5g cholesterol: 53mg (18%) sodium: 1039mg (43%) potassium: 414mg (12%) carbohydrates: 41g (14%) dietary fibre: 2.1g (8%) sugar: 3g protein: 22g vitamin a: 1.7% vitamin c: 2.3% calcium: 2.6% iron: 13%