This salad is a celebration of summery produce, featuring tomatoes and tofu in a very light, refreshing salad. In a lot of ways, it is like a caprese salad, but if you subbed out the basil with shiso and the mozzarella with tofu. This was one of the four courses I made for my mom on Mother’s Day, since I knew that she used to love eating tomatoes during the summer in Taiwan, My mom also loves Meiji tofu, which is a freshly made, soft tofu was an almost sweet aftertaste to it. I figured that with the tartness of a tomato, Meiji tofu would contrast that beautifully, in the same way cheese would pair with tomatoes. It’s actually fascinating how similar ricotta and mozzarella are to tofu, with firm tofu almost having the same elasticity as fresh mozzarella, while silken tofu is extremely similar to a dollop of ricotta(the same doesn’t hold true when you try to sear or roast them though!). And adding in shiso(also called perilla, which is essentially a Japanese cousin to mint) to lighten it, pistachios for the salty-smoky notes, ponzu for more tartness, and watermelon radish for a slight spicy-crunchiness, and you have a reasonably well-balanced, colorful salad, perfect for the summer!

For the case of my recipe, I used heirloom and momotaro tomatoes. Momotaro tomatoes are a Japanese variety that are a little bit sweeter. I look forward to the summer because that’s when they are readily available at my farmer’s market, while the heirloom tomatoes are just so colorful and have an almost meatier bite to them. I dressed those tomatoes with a ponzu(sour soy sauce) just to accentuate the tarter notes in the tomatoes themselves. To pair with the creamy Meiji tofu, and to layer in a little flavor since tofu is a blank slate sponge-type of ingredient, I made a pistachio-shiso pesto, just to add more grassy, herbaceous, smoky, and salty notes. The watermelon radishes are thinly shaved and kept in lightly salted water just to keep the seasoned, and relatively crunchy. The final salad is fairly quick to put together, with only the pesto actually taking more than one step to make(since you have to blanch and shock shiso so that it keeps a vibrant green color), and one that really does celebrate the colorfulness of summer produce!

For the shiso-pistachio pesto:
4 shiso leaves
1/4 cup shelled pistachios
2 tbsp olive oil
a pinch of salt

Blanch the shiso leaves in hot water for 5 seconds then shock them in cold water. Wring out any excess water from the shiso before transferring to a food processor with the other ingredients. Puree until a smooth, creamy pesto forms.

For the ponzu:
2 tbsp soy sauce
1 tsp shio koji
1 tbsp lemon juice
a pinch of salt

In a bowl, mix everything together to for a ponzu.

For the salad:
6oz meiji silken tofu
4 heirloom tomatoes
3 momotaro tomatoes
2 shiso leaves, torn
1 watermelon radish, thinly sliced
a pinch of salt

Cube the meiji tofu. Also cut the tomatoes into large wedges. Toss the tomatoes in the ponzu. Sprinkle salt on the watermelon radish slices. Arrange the ingredients on plates, and garnish the tops of the meiji tofu with pesto, while the tomatoes are to be garnished with pieces of shiso.