Tomato to myoga no ponzujoyu-ae / tomato and Japanese ginger buds in citrus soy sauce

A quick small salad for summer. Ingredients are flavorful reminders of the season and naturally go well together. This can be made rich, strong or light, depending on when and where oil is added.

1/2 of recipe:
21 calories; 0.7 g protein; 0.6 g fat; 4.0 g carbohydrate; 3.0 g net carbs; 14 mg sodium (with homemade ponzujoyu made with 50% reduced-sodium soy sauce); 0 mg cholesterol; 1.0 g fiber


<Ingredients>

1 large tomato (169 g in photo)
1 large or 2-3 medium/small myoga Japanese ginger buds (16 g in photo)
Tiny handful (approx. 10 g) mizuna (8 g in photo)

For dressing
1/4 tsp sesame oil
1 tsp ponzujoyu citrus soy sauce
1 tsp dashi


<Directions>
1.

Skin and dice tomato.

Place tomato in a prep bowl, add sesame oil, and mix well.

2.

Cut mizuna in 3-4 cm, and slice myoga.
Mix ponzujoyu and dashi.

3.

Immediately before serving, add myoga and ponzujoyu + dashi mixture to tomato, and mix well.

Place mizuna in individual bowls, and put tomato and myoga.

Leave all excess liquid in prep bowl for a very light taste.
Pour liquid as well if you want a stronger taste.

<Notes>

• First coating tomato with oil makes the salad taste light, even when all the dressing is poured in serving bowls. For an even stronger taste, add oil to ponzujoyu + dashi mixture instead of adding to tomato; this lets tomato absorb more dressing, resulting in more soy sauce flavor being released into your mouth.
• Any oil works fine. Olive oil is a good choice if the toasty taste of sesame oil is not wanted. 
• The nutrition figures above are for half of all ingredients. Actual intake, especially of sodium, is much lower (likely a single digit when excess dressing is left in prep bowl).
  
• Photo at right is the same salad with julienned aojiso green perilla leaves on top.
• This salad also makes a good topping for hiyayakko chilled tofu or grilled atsuage deep-fried tofu.