Carrot, Avocado and Wakame Salad

It seems like we have been eating this salad forever. We discovered seaweed when we used to frequent the Japanese restaurants in Antwerp, Belgium, a long time ago.  It became all the rage to play with seaweed in the kitchen, we’d cook Kombu with beans, make sushi with nori or toast it and crumble it onto soups and make salads with wakame .

Wakame is very easy to use. It’s sold dried so we keep it in the pantry and whenever we want to use it we just snip it into small pieces with scissors, pour boiling water over it and let it soak whilst we prepare the rest of the salad. It goes very well with cucumber but my personal favourite is grated carrots, avocado and toasted seeds. I eat it for lunch, it’s a great home alone dish and a real vitality buzz in the middle of the day.

For each portion;

200g carrots

about 5g of wakame seaweed

1 small ripe avocado

1tbs sunflower seeds

1tbs pumpkin seeds

a little soya sauce or tamari

For the dressing;

half tsp Dijon mustard

1 dsp white balsamic vinegar

3-4 tbs olive oil or rapeseed oil

a splash of soya sauce or tamari

Snip the wakame into small pieces with a pair of scissors and put it into a bowl. Pour over enough boiling water to cover.

Peel and grate the carrots and put them into the bowl that you’re going to eat from. Cut the avocado into quarters, remove the peel and chop it into small pieces. I let mine land around the carrots.

Put the sunflower seeds and pumpkin seeds into a dry pan and toast on medium heat until the seeds become golden – the pumpkins seeds will pop a little bit. When the seeds are golden remove from the heat and shake a little soya sauce or tamari over the seeds. Shake the sauce and the pan at the same time to get an even distribution. Drain the wakame and give it a good shake. Put a little pile in the middle, on top of the carrots and scatter the seeds on top.

To make the dressing put the Dijon mustard into small bowl. Whisk the vinegar in with a fork then whisk in the oil. Season with a little soya sauce or tamari.

Drizzle about half of the dressing on top of the salad and leave the rest close by in case you want more.