Every dish from tonight's dinner featured sesame seeds. A seaweed salad with edamame, sesame flatbread crackers, and steamed eggplant topped with, you guessed it, sesame seeds. Read Sesame Seeds Parts 2 & 3 to find the recipes for those dishes.

My favorite side dish when I eat at Asian restaurants is seaweed salad.  After scouring the web I learned that sea vegetables are just as versatile as the grains, beans, and vegetables I've been using to make various salads. I've been meaning to incorporate sea vegetables into my cooking vocabulary, as they are high in protein, fiber, and various minerals. Here, I rehydrated Arame and Hijiki, and combined it with edamame, cucumber, red pepper, shallots in a soy and vinegar dressing.

Seaweed Salad

1/3 c Arame
1/3 c Hijiki
1/2 red bell pepper, diced
1 c shelled edamame, cooked
1 cucumber, seeded, peeled and chopped thin (next time I will dice it instead)
1 shallot, minced
1 T+ toasted sesame seeds
2 scallions, white and green parts, chopped
1 1/2 T freshly grated ginger (add more to taste)
1 T Mirin
2 T soy sauce (I prefer reduced sodium soy sauce)
2 T  rice vinegar
1 T sesame oil (or substitute olive or almond oil)
pinch of cayenne (add more to taste)

Place arame and hijiki into a small saucepan of boiling water. Boil 10-15mins until tender but not soft. Meanwhile, prepare edamame, boiling pods or beans, shell if necessary. Place arame, hijiki, and edamame together in a large bowl. Add cucumber, pepper, and shallots. Make your dressing in a separate small bowl. Whisk together ginger, soy sauce, rice vinegar, oil, mirin and cayenne together. Pour on top of salad mixture. Toss together with sesame seeds. Top with scallions.

Serve cold or at room temperature. Serves 4 to 6.

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