Recipe: Alice Zaslavsky’s Shaved Zucchini and Edamame Salad With Pickled Ginger

For many, salads are a necessary evil, an easy way to squeeze more veg into their diet or offer a prerequisite side at a dinner party. For cookbook author Alice Zaslavsky, they’re an opportunity to harness seasonal produce and turn it into something amazing. Her latest cookbook, Salad for Days, is devoted to recipes that might change your mind about salad – or, if you’re already a convert, add a whole host of new recipes to your repertoire.

If salads aren’t your bag, this shaved zucchini and edamame number might just push you over the edge into team salad. With just a few ingredients – plus a tangy pickled ginger dressing – it’s bound to become a firm favourite once the weather heats up. And though salad recipes tend to be easy, Zaslavsky says this one is even simpler than most. Bonus: it’ll last a few days in the fridge.

“This is a dump’n’dress salad, so there’s no need to emulsify the dressing ahead of time,” she writes. “The raw zucchini cures in the sharp, warming dressing, but it’s still a surprisingly robust salad which will last a few days in the fridge – though it’s at its optimal point texturally at around the one-to-two-hour mark, while the zucchini still has some bite.”

Zaslavsky is all about approachability and accessibility, and each recipe in her book (including this one) offers tips to make it extra foolproof.

“Pickled ginger can be a little bitter, so do taste for balance and add a small amount of extra sugar if needed. You could add a soba noodle here to make it a more substantial meal-in-a-bowl. Mukimame are the podded version of edamame, and you should be able to find them in the freezer aisle. If you can’t, buy whole edamame and pod them after blanching.”

Alice Zaslavsky’s shaved zucchini and edamame salad with pickled ginger

Serves 4–6
Preparation time: 15 minutes
Cooking time: 2 minutes

Ingredients

1 cup (150g) frozen mukimame (podded edamame) beans
4 small-to-medium zucchini, about 600g
½ cup coriander leaves and stems, roughly chopped
1 tbsp wasabi peas, lightly crushed in a mortar and pestle

Pickled ginger dressing

1 tbsp pickled ginger, finely chopped
1 tbsp pickled ginger juice
2 spring onions, finely sliced
1 tbsp mirin
1 tbsp lemon juice
1 tbsp sesame oil
2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil, plus extra for drizzling
1½ tsp salt flakes

Method

Bring a medium saucepan of well-salted water to the boil, then tumble in the mukimame and cook for 2 minutes. Drain and set aside.

Peel long strips of zucchini on the diagonal, using a julienne mandolin or peeler. Put the zucchini, mukimame and the coriander into a bowl and add the dressing ingredients straight on top, giving everything a bit of a mix, then set aside until ready to serve.

Arrange the mixture on a platter, drizzling with any leftover dressing from the bottom of the bowl, and dressing with some extra olive oil. Season with salt and pepper. Serve straight away, or leave to soften and get friendly. Sprinkle with crushed wasabi peas just before it hits the table.

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This is an edited extract from Salad for Days by Alice Zaslavsky, RRP$45, out now through Murdoch Books.