Many years ago I was at a potluck dinner and someone made a green salad with an Asian dressing and kamaboko. Unfortunately I didn’t get the recipe and now I can’t remember who made it. Usually I can find what I’m looking for, or a reasonable facsimile, by doing a search on the internet. But in this case, I came up empty.

What this salad is not

Interestingly, a search for “kamaboko salad” brought up several examples but none were the recipe I was looking for. The recipes included:

• Different pasta salads – some using spaghetti, others using rotini. The ones using spaghetti looked like they were trying to make a version of somen salad, a recipe I will share in the future.
• Salads of kamaboko and warabi (fern shoots)
• Kani salad – a salad of crunchy julienned vegetables and shredded imitation crab meat
• Kamaboko potato salad

Unfortunately none of these recipes resembled the salad I was looking for so I had to create something myself.

Salad components

The salad has several simple components and can be pulled together quickly.

• A leafy element – romaine lettuce
• Some crunch factors – celery and cucumber
• A savory protein – kamaboko (imitation crab meat can be substituted)
• An Asian dressing – creamy sesame dressing

I recommend making the dressing. It’s a lovely balance of sweet and savory and highlights the flavor of sesame. But in a pinch, you could find a bottled dressing at your grocery store.

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