May 30, 2013
Just before we moved to Vancouver we spent 4 weeks in Japan. I loved it there. It’s one of the only places that I have visited that I would want to go back to before hitting up all of the other places on my long, long list of places I want to see one day. The food was a big part of how much we enjoyed our time there. I wasn’t very familiar with Japanese food (beyond sushi) before we traveled there, and I was surprised at how much deliciousness was out there to discover. It was pretty great when we moved to Vancouver, which is probably one of the best places outside of Japan in terms of the availability and authenticity of their Japanese food.
We only lived in Vancouver for a short time but there was one restaurant that quickly became our go-to for any sort of celebration- birthdays, anniversaries, visitors. Occasionally, I would want to be original and take advantage of the fact that we were willing to spend a little more money on a meal to try another restaurant we wouldn’t normally go to, but we always ended back at Miku. I don’t even remember how we came across it but Miku restaurant is legitimately the best restaurant I have ever been to in my life.
I’m not saying that I haven’t had equally exciting or tasty meals, but as a whole, in terms of consistency and wanting to eat everything on the menu it wins hands down.
One of the dishes we ordered every time that we went was their crumbled tofu salad. I didn’t really know what to expect the first time we ordered it. It was relatively inexpensive and it seemed like a good ‘filler’ for the real deal, like the sushi and other main courses. Boy, was I wrong. I have never had tofu like that in my life- creamy, yet crumbly.
Along with the tofu, the salad always came with tiny pieces of fried sweet potato, which gave the salad a great crunch. Unlike the tofu, I wasn’t able to achieve the same texture as the sweet potato. Instead, I used a peeler to slice the potato as thinly as possible and pan fried it until it was almost burnt, giving the salad a sweet and deliciously bitter element.
Inspired by dish at Miku Restaurant, Vancouver
This salad is great as a light dinner for two or a starter. I would really suggest making all of the elements below as each one provides another element that balances the salad nicely.
Start with half of the amount of dressing on the salad and then add as much as you want according to your preference!
Pat your tofu dry and use your fingers to crumble it into a bowl.
In a small bowl whisk together all of the ingredients for your marinade. Make sure the mixture is smooth and all of the miso is fully incorporated. Pour over crumbled tofu and mix with a spoon. I let it sit for an hour, but if you are tight on time, 15 minutes should be okay.
Put a medium sized skillet and 3 tbsp canloa oil on medium-high heat. Wash and peel your sweet potato. Using your peeler, peel your potato so that you have thin ribbons of sweet potato. Once the oil is hot, add sweet potato. Cook for about 15 minutes, until crispy.
The sweet potato should get quite dark, the color adds a nice bitter/sweet taste, but be careful not to burn it.
Let cool to room temperature.
In a small bowl, whisk all ingredients for the ponzu dressing together. Set aside until you are ready to assemble your salad.
Mix together all salad ingredients. Add ponzu dressing and toss the salad. Add some of the crumbled tofu and sweet potato curls on top of the salad. This salad is best served when all of the ingredients are at room temperature.
http://mysecondbreakfast.com/crumbled-tofu-salad-recipe/Crumbled tofu salad Recipe was last modified: May 30, 2013 by
4 thoughts on “Crumbled Tofu Salad Recipe”
Thank you so much for the recipe! It was a big hit with my family! The ponzu dressing goes amazingly with the spring mix greens, balancing the bitterness with the sour/sweetness.
I changed a couple of things to fit our taste, which maybe others will find helpful…
I used 1-1.25 TBS of red miso instead as it provided a more deeper taste, deep fried the sweet potato for more crispness, and added some pickled radish and carrots to add color and more sour/sweetness to the dish overall.
Thank you! This was exactly what I was looking for (I was at Miku the other day!).
Lucky! Hope you enjoy
Love the sound of this!