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Hero shot of root vegetables with Wasabi Mayonnaise.
Root Vegetable Salad with Wasabi Mayonnaise
Prep Time
10 mins
Cook Time
5 mins
Total Time
15 mins
 

Adding Wasabi Mayonnaise to a salad gives it a Japanese touch. Root Vegetable Salad is a very simple salad consisting of only carrot, burdock and cucumber, but it’s quite satisfying with a creamy Wasabi Dressing.

Recipe Type: Salad
Cuisine: Japanese
Keyword: root vegetable, wasabi, wasabi mayonnaise
Serves: 2
Author: Yumiko
Ingredients (tbsp=15ml, cup=250ml)
  • 60g/2.1oz carrot
  • 100g/3.5oz burdock (fresh or shaved frozen, note 1)
  • 60g/2.1oz cucumber
Wasabi Mayonnaise
  • 1 tsp wasabi paste (note 2)
  • 1 tsp soy sauce
  • ½ tsp vinegar
  • ¼ tsp mirin
  • 2 tbsp mayonnaise (note 3)
  • Salt
Instructions
  1. If your carrot is very thick, halve or quarter vertically to make thin sticks. Make sasagaki cut carrot (shaved carrot) from each stick. See the post for how to do sasagaki cut.

  2. Boil water in a small saucepan and blanch the carrot pieces for 30–60 seconds (note 4). Drain and cool.

  3. If you are using frozen shaved burdock, thaw them and drain excess water if necessary. Skip steps 4 and 5.

  4. If you are using a fresh burdock root, scrape off the skin using the back of the knife, then make sasagaki cut burdock. As you shave the burdock, place the burdock pieces in a bowl filled with water (note 5). Leave them for 5 minutes.
  5. Boil water in a small saucepan and cook the burdock pieces for a couple of minutes (note 4). Drain and cool.
  6. Slice the cucumber thinly diagonally, then julienne the sliced cucumber slices lengthwise.

  7. Mix all the vegetables in a bowl.
  8. Mix wasabi paste, soy sauce, vinegar and mirin in a small bowl, ensuring that there are no lumps of wasabi paste.

  9. Add mayonnaise to the bowl and mix well.
  10. Transfer the wasabi mayonnaise to the bowl of vegetables and mix well to coat every piece of vegetable with the mayonnaise.
  11. Taste test and adjust with salt if required. Serve as a salad, or in small bowls/plates as appetiser.

Recipe Notes

1. You can buy burdock that are already shaved into sasagaki cut. They are sold frozen at Japanese/Asian grocery stores.

2. If you are using wasabi powder, mix the powder with water to make wasabi paste. The degree of kick of heat and wasabi flavour depends on the brand of wasabi you use. You can increase the amount of wasabi if you prefer it to be spicier.

3. I used Kewpie mayonnaise, which is available at Japanese/Asian grocery stores as well as supermarkets. The Western style mayonnaise and Kewpie mayonnaise are a bit different in flavour – the former is sweeter. I made wasabi mayonnaise using both types of mayonnaise and both of them came out fine.

4. The time to blanch/cook root vegetables depends on the thickness of sasagaki cut and also how crunchy/soft you want them to be.

5. Fresh burdock becomes brown when exposed to air. Soaking in water, it prevents the burdock pieces from becoming brown. It also removes the bitterness.

6. Nutrition information per serving:

serving: 132g calories: 156kcal  fat: 12g (17%)  saturated fat: 1.7g (9%)  polyunsaturated fat: 6.3g  monounsaturated fat: 2.5g  cholesterol: 5.8mg (2%)  sodium: 666mg (27%) potassium: 321mg (10%)  carbohydrates: 13.7g (5%)  dietary fibre: 4.1g (16%)  sugar: 2.7g  protein: 1.8g  vitamin a: 101%  vitamin c: 5.9%  calcium: 19.4%  iron: 1.8%