It’s hard to avoid getting swept up into the “New Year, New Me” fervor every January. But I find that just reaffirming my commitment to creating delicious food with a focus on veggies is far more effective than making any strict dietary resolutions that are bound to fail by February. Avocado Tofu Salad is a perfect example of this philosophy. The ingredients are available year round and are loaded with nutrients. Plus, the bright refreshing taste is a welcome change after the heavy holiday treats and makes plant forward eating exciting and easy. So let’s get it into it!
A Citrusy Salad Dressing
The best salads start with an amazing dressing. And the dressing for my Avocado Tofu Salad is so simple to make, but it adds zesty complexity. I start with yuzu juice. Yuzu is a citrus fruit grown primarily in China and Japan. It’s hard to get fresh in the states, so I rely on bottled juice that you can get at any well stocked Asian grocer, or online. (Use the leftover juice to whip up a batch of Yuzu Margaritas!) Yuzu juice is quite tart, so I temper it with some honey. A neutral oil, I like avocado for this, some soy sauce, and a little toasted sesame oil round it out.
Salad Veggie Prep
Avocados Are Life!
I know I’m not alone in this, avocado toast has been one of the most popular hashtags on Instagram for years. I’m always looking for ways to incorporate more of this fruit’s creamy, buttery, rich goodness into my life. It’s the waning days of avocado season here in Miami, and I am lucky to have access to amazing local ones grown by my friends at LNB Grovestand. Florida avocados are HUGE, so for this salad I just use a quarter of one amazing Choquette. If you are using the smaller Haas variety, you’ll use the whole thing.
If you live in Florida and haven’t had a chance to enjoy a local avocado… what are you waiting for? The growing season starts around July and in a good year, it lasts until the end of January. But some lucky years, the season has stretched a couple weeks later. The early summer varietals can be a little watery and bland. But the creamiest, most flavorful varieties are the ones we’re enjoying now, so get yourself to a farmer’s market now before they disappear.
Avocados and Tofu-a Perfect Match!
Tofu in a salad?! A resounding yes! (Check out Lemongrass Tofu Rice Salad for further proof…) Silken tofu is super soft, complements the avocado’s texture, and adds a nice contrast to the crunchy cucumbers and onion. Furthermore, it adds a good amount of protein to this salad. I slice the block of tofu lengthwise, and then slice each length into 8 pieces.
Assemble the Avocado Tofu Salad
Now that all the veggies, seaweed, and tofu have been prepped, it’s time to assemble everything. I drain the cucumbers and onions, and mix half of them with the wakame. This becomes the bed of the salad.
The salad can be made a few hours ahead of time, but I wait until serving to pour on the dressing so the crunchy stuff stays crunchy. Also, cucumbers leach a ton of water when you hit them with salt, so add the dressing on at the table to avoid a watery flavor.
This makes a great light supper, or enjoy it served alongside:
Give Avocado Tofu Salad a try and let me know what you think. Drop a comment on the recipe below, and tag us in your pics @funkyasiankitchen, we love hearing from you!
Avocado Tofu Salad
- Prep Time: 15 minutes
- Total Time: 15 minutes
- Yield: 4 servings 1x
- Category: salad
- Cuisine: Japanese
Ingredients
- 1 container silken tofu
- 1 avocado (I used ¼ of a giant florida avocado)
- 1 Tablespoon dried wakame seaweed
- ½ european cucumber
- ¼ red onion
Dressing:
- 6 tablespoons yuzu juice
- 6 tablespoons neutral oil
- 3 tablespoon light colored soy sauce (regular soy sauce is fine too)
- 3 tablespoon honey
- 2 clove garlic minced
- 3 teaspoon toasted sesame oil
Instructions
- Mix the yuzu juice, soy sauce, honey, garlic, oil, and sesame oil together in a cup and set aside until ready to use.
- Trim the red onion and slice into paper thin slivers. Put it in a bowl of ice water for 10 minutes to tame some of the strong flavor.
- Cut the cucumber into thin slices. Then stack the slices and cut through them again to create thin julienne pieces. Add them to the onions and let sit in ice water while you finish prepping other ingredients.
- Rehydrate the wakame by soaking it in ½ cup of water. Let it sit for 10 minutes until it has bloomed. Drain and set aside.
- Cut the avocado in half, take out the pit and then slice the avocado into 12 slices. Set aside.
- Open and drain the container of tofu. Carefully cut the tofu in half lengthwise and then each half into 8 slices.
- Drain the cucumber and red onions. Combine half with the wakame.
- On a platter, arrange the wakame combo as a bed in the center of a platter. Arrange the tofu and avocado attractively on the plate (you can also use 4 plates if you want to make individual servings).
- Arrange the rest of the cucumber and red onions on top.
- Serve avocado tofu salad with the dressing on the side.
Notes
*It’s best to serve the dressing on the side as the cucumber will start to leach liquid as soon as the dressing hits it, which will make the salad watery.
*Avocado Tofu Salad can be made ahead several hours in advance but it’s best to eat it the same day as the avocado will start to darken if left overnight.
Keywords: avocado, seaweed, tofu, yuzu, plant based
