Lately, I’ve become obsessed with sushi salad. I’ve got the idea at one of my friends’ Shabbat tables, where three young daughters of the family made one and decided to create my own version. So far, I’ve tried it three times with slightly different ingredients, but it worked magically every time to the delight of my table crowd.

I have started eating sushi relatively late in life, and even though I love it, I am still very cautious as to what exactly and where I eat. We are talking raw fish!

The most important ingredient in sushi is, of course, rice. Everyone says you have to use special sushi rice. Well, guess what? I didn’t. One time I used just regular California white rice, and two others – brown rice that you have to cook twice as long. I liked it much more with brown rice that has to be cooked for 40 minutes as opposed to 20 for regular rice. I don’t have a rice cooker, nor do I have space for it, so I just use the old method – twice as much water for rice on the minimum fire.

Next comes the fish. So, I am not a restaurant with fresh fish delivery every day, so I can’t afford to make a mistake that can cost someone their health. I don’t use raw fish. I use lox and kosher fake crab sticks.

So, the final (or not) list of ingredients is:

Rice
Lox – cut in thin strips
Fake crab sticks – cut in thin strips
Edamame (frozen and thawed but not to the mushy stage)
Radish, sliced very thinly
Scallions – cut in small pieces
Ginger – both raw and pickled, that you can easily make yourself, sliced thinly
Carrots sliced into super thin matchsticks
Avocado – cut in small pieces (Make sure you do this at the last moment and sprinkle with a bit of fresh lemon juice)
Cucumber – diced
Nori sheet(s) – torn into small pieces or julienned

For the dressing:

Mayonnaise
Rice vinegar
Miso paste (optional)
Olive oil
Sesame oil
Soy sauce
Wasabi powder or sauce

For the garnish (optional):

Regular and black sesame seeds
Red caviar

I am not giving any measurements here, you really should go by your own taste. The same goes for the list of ingredients. You can omit any of those, and just experiment with what you have in your fridge. That’s what I always do, anyway.

Toss all the ingredients together, make the dressing by emulsifying all its ingredients together and shaking vigorously to blend.

Pour the dressing over the salad, mix very well, and add caviar and sesame seeds on top.

This is going to be served at my family lunch today. My girls are both coming! Excited!