Summer Vegetable Salad 夏野菜サラダ

日本語のレシピは　ビーガン、ベジタリアン情報満載の　Hachidoryから　ご覧下さい。

The rainy season has ended, and the summer is turning up the heat. I see the figures of “37” , “38” and “39” in the weather forecast of the next week. I can’t remember since when it became a norm to see those figures during summer season.
The temperature beyond our bodies is definitely not comfortable, 
but I can cool down myself with the air conditioner. What a luxury ! In macrobiotics, summer season is considered "Yang/陽" and the vegetables produced in natural environment in summer are considered "Yin/陰".    
Yin vegetables helps us to maintain the homeostasis in Yang season, which means the summer vegetables are beneficial for our health in summer. So let’s enjoy the cooling summer vegetables and fruit until our heart contents,  After all it is only this season that eggplants, tomatoes, cucumbers, sweet corn, watermelons are energetic, truly beautiful and cheerful.  And of course, they are delicious !
The summer vegetables in my garden




Today I am sharing the summer vegetable salad with the light vinaigrette dressing. Feel the summer vibration with this salad! Here you go !


Summer Vegetable Salad / Natsuyasai Sarada 夏野菜サラダとフレンチドレッシング
You can make this salad with any other vegetables, but I love the combination of cucumber, tomato, sweetcorn and shiso/green perilla leaves, so try with these vegetables if they are available in your place too.
Ingredients
Cucumber,  Sweetcorn kernel,  Cherry tomato,  Green perilla leaf







For dressing 1/2 ~1 yellow onion →　chop fine 50g rice vinegar or your choice of vinegar 50g cold pressed virgin rice oil or your choice of oil 2 Tbsp mustard seeds marinated in vinegar 1tsp salt A hint of pepper

Procedure Slice the cucumber to thin rounds. Rub them with a hint of salt, let it rest for 5 min, squeeze and remove the juice.


2. Detach the corn kernels from the cob, blanch in the boiling water for a mew min. drain, rub a hint of salt.  If you want to skip this procedure, you can use canned or frozen kernels.  But needless to say, the seasonal fresh ones are fresher and tastier.        Refer to this post how to detach the corn kernels, you can also find the other sweet corn  recipes. 
3.　Cut the cherry tomato into smaller sizes, maybe to four pieces.

4.Tear the perilla leaves to small pieces with your hands.

5. Preparation of dressing; Combine all the ingredients except the chopped onion and emulsify by mixing vigorously with the whisk. When unified, add the chopped onion and mix.




6. Assembling; Combine all the vegetables above, place on a plate  and then pore the dressing from the top.





This dressing goes nice with the big size tomatoes too.

Notes
The amount of vegetables are not shown in the recipe. Prepare as much as you want.
As for dressing, the mustard seeds are doing a very good job. They give you a nice sensation of popping texture and robust flavor.   However if you can’t find them, you can replace them with the bottled creamy type of mustard.  I usually purchase the mustard seeds, soak 50g of them in the water for a few hours, drain and then marinate in the 50g of rice vinegar with a teaspoon of sugar and salt, letting them rest for a minimum of a week or so.  So if you can purchase the seeds, I recommend you make your own as it is easy to make and costs much less than buying the readymade.
Happy Cooking！