Japanese radish salad

This Japanese radish salad has an unusual and exciting taste. It is an interesting side dish to a main course, such as okonomiyaki. The salad is easy to make, even by novice cooks. Especially in winter, radish is a very healthy raw vegetable, because it contains a lot of vitamin C, mustard oil and bitter substances, which even have an antibiotic effect. The mild, white radish is available in Europe in vegetable stores and supermarkets during winter time.

First cut off the top and bottom of the radish.

Then divide the radish into pieces about 6 – 7 cm long, depending on the size. The upright radish pieces can be easily peeled with a knife.

Cut the pieces lengthwise into thin slices, like you would cut long boards from a tree trunk.

If you arrange the radish slices like a fallen domino game, you can now easily cut fine strips.

Afterwards you put the radish in a sieve/colander to drain, sprinkled with a little salt and sugar. If you like the radish very crunchy and have no problem with slightly bitter taste, you can skip this step. Bitterness is actually very healthy, but our sugar-addled taste buds have often forgotten how to enjoy it. Children generally dislike bitter foods – an innate reflex that can protect them from toxins.

Cut the anchovies as small as possible. Then grate a piece of ginger finely and mix it with the miso paste and the Kewpie mayonnaise. You can also use regular mayonnaise if you can not get Kewpie mayonnaise.

Now you can mix in the soy sauce and the rice vinegar. Use a whisk for this. If small pieces of ginger remain visible, this is no big deal. Now you can squeeze the radish and mix it with the dressing. Add only as much dressing as necessary. At the end, sprinkle the salt with sesame seeds.

For fun, we also made a version of the radish salad with a simple dressing of soy sauce, sesame oil and rice vinegar, because we had some dressing left over from a cucumber salad. This version (in the blue bowl) also tastes great.

Enjoy.
And may the taste be with you.

Ingredients

(serves 4 as a side dish)

1 large white radish
Some fresh ginger
3 small anchovies
4 tbsp soy sauce
2 tbsp rice vinegar
1 tbsp white miso paste
2 tbsp (Japanese Kewpie) mayonnaise
1 pinch of sugar
Salt
Black sesame seeds