Japanese Sprouted Salad

       I've always enjoyed that mysterious orange dressing that you get at Japanese restaurants. I looked around trying to find some similar recipes, and out of the few I rounded up, I created this yummy salad. Quite a bit more complex than the average sushi restaurant green salad.  This salad uses some of my favourite vegetables and incorporates some lovely sprouts! I've listed below what vegetables I've used to make this particular bowl, but feel free to use whichever vegetables you want. As for the main green, a crunchy lettuce, such as iceberg, as bland as it may be, goes perfectly with this zesty sauce.

Dressing

Makes about 1 1/2 cups of dressing, slightly more than you will need for one head of iceberg

Ingredients

• 1 5-6" piece of ginger root, peeled 
• 1/2 cup rice wine vinegar
• 1 Tbsp white onion
• 1 small clove of garlic or 1/8 tsp garlic powder
• 1-3 Tbsp water
• 1/2 cup olive or vegetable oil
• 1/2 Tbsp sesame oil
• 2 Tbsp soy sauce
• 2 Tbsp tomato paste 
• 1 Tbsp honey

Preparation

1. Roughly chop the ginger root.
2. Add all ingredients into a blender or food processor, start with only 1 Tbsp of water, and add more to thin out the dressing if desired. 
3. Blend until smooth.
4. If you add too much water and want to make it a bit thicker, add some more ginger and tomato paste.
5. Taste, add a bit of salt or more soy sauce if needed.
6. Transfer dressing to a mason jar, and refrigerate for at least 10 minutes before serving.

Salad

Ingredients

• 1 head of iceberg lettuce, cut or ripped to size
• Handful of washed fresh cilantro leaves
• 1 cup fresh sprouts
• 5 spears of asparagus, shaved or cut thinly
• 1/4 cucumber, julienned
• 1/2 red pepper, sliced thinly 
• 1 medium carrot, shaved or julienned
• 2-3 green onions, greens chopped
• 
  
• 1 avocado, sliced or cubed
• toasted sesame seeds

Preparation

The first two ingredients in this salad are the most important. The crunch of the iceberg and the fresh citrus notes of the cilantro are a must. As for the rest of the ingredients, feel free to take some creative liberty when dressing your salad. 
Combine first set of ingredients in a bowl and mix. 
Add the avocado before dressing/serving and sprinkle the sesame seeds on top.

This salad is perfect along side a stir fry, some home-made sushi or spring rolls. Yum!

Spring Sprouts!

12 hours

24 hours

36 hours

48 hours

60 hours

72 hours

84 hours

96 hours: Lunch Time!

With Spring fast approaching, its a great time to start sprouting. My currents favourites include alfalfa and chickpeas, but other varieties that are easy to grow sprouts include: fenugreek, radish, broccoli, mung beans, cabbage, mustard seeds, quinoa, lentils and pea sprouts.   

Sprouts are great on sandwiches or in salads. They taste great and they're good for you. Sprouts can be very expensive, and by growing them yourself, you can cut the costs and achieve fresher sprouts any time of year. 

My favourite sprouting method is growing sprouts in mason jars. To grow sprouts in mason jars, you will need a large glass jar, cheese cloth of mesh, an elastic, a drying rack, colander or large bowl to drain water. 

Soaking over night

Rinsed than left to drain

24 hours

To start sprouting, soak your seeds 2-4 times the amount of water, and let soak over night. In the morning, drain out the water, rinse, drain and let dry on an angle by a window. 

Rinse and drain sprouts twice daily, before bed, and in the morning works well. Harvest your sprouts within 3-7 days depending on the seed. 

Alfalfa can be ready to eat around 4 days, were as chickpeas takes even less time. For most sprouts, continue sprouting until they develop a long tail with a few green leaves. For some sprouts, such as chickpeas, quinoa, pea sprouts and mung beans and lentis, they can be eaten as soon as their tail emerges.  That being said, longer tails are commonly preferred for salads and some other raw dishes.
When these babies are ready, eat them or stick them in the fridge and keep refrigerated for up to 7 days.