Months ago, when they were on sale, Niles used to bring me these packs of readymade fish and and shrimp taco things, and they were delicious. They were simple; just taco-spice marinated shrimp mixed with chopped bell peppers and onions. So Wednesday night I realized that I had a big bag of shrimp in the freezer, and figured I’d make my own. I used the last of Niles’s stash of homemade taco seasoning (sorry Niles!) and filled a tupperware with spicy shrimp, onions and peppers. I made shrimp tacos with half of it, and used the rest to top a salad. Such a simple recipe, but so delicious! And easy enough to make a big batch for a whole week’s supply.
Anyway, this has me thinking. I mean, the salad tasted so much like the shrimp tacos, I wonder if I could make other similarly inspired salads? Right now I’m scheming about a gumbo-flavored salad, with cajun-spiced shrimp, andouille sausage, onions and peppers. I bet it’d be pretty great! Because the thing about salads – and this took me a long time to learn – is that the greens are the canvas of the meal, just like the broth in a soup, the rice in a donburi, or the bread in a sandwich. A salad doesn’t have to be a pile of boring raw vegetables in order to be healthy, and it doesn’t have to be smothered in cream-based dressings to be tasty. The sky’s the limit, really.
Now I just have to figure out how to make a salad that tastes like sushi.
Salad that tastes like sushi… I’d guess you’d want some shredded seaweed in the salad greens, and some sushi-grade fish chopped fine, and some ginger-wasabi-soy dressing. Maybe also some puffed rice cereal, for crunch? It could be done!
Isaac, you are brilliant!! I hadn’t thought about shredding seaweed in with the greens, but yes, that’s a perfect touch. The only thing I can’t figure out is how to get the taste of the vinegar-marinated sushi rice without having, you know, rice in it. But that’s not a dealbreaker.
I think I’m going to try this sushi salad this weekend, since (as I am Sarah) I already have a filet of sashimi grade tuna in the freezer. It’s how I roll. (ha!)
Marinate some of the sashimi grade tuna in the vinegar! Or add some of it to the dressing…or blend it with tahini and add some of it to the dressing…ooh I gotta go make a salad now.
I’m telling you, if I were going to try this, I’d buy a thing of puffed-rice cereal and sprinkle some in after the salad was dressed, like croutons.
Isaac: BRILLIANT. I was going to try making the sushi salad this weekend, but instead I just made sushi. And then I made some more sushi and brought it for lunch today, but my boss left us money to go out for lunch so we’re going to get sushi, and I’ll just have to save my lunch sushi for dinner sushi. Guys, by this evening, three out of my four last meals will have been sushi, and I will have no regrets about that.