a winter salad with raw beet and black radish for finicky eaters, and the last photos of our trip to Tokyo

Not much to talk about in this post, dear neighbor, just a very simple winter salad where I sneak in raw vegetables for my Finicky Eater, aka my dear husband, and I figured, well, if it works for him, maybe it will work for you and your own finicky eater, children, whatever ! How is it done ? Simply by using a julienne knife to cut the not-so-well-liked vegetables, namely beet and black radish, into very thin strips. It looks pretty, and apparently is more pleasing to the taste buds than grating the vegetables, which is what I had been doing up until now. The culinary world is full of surprises, isn’t it ? 

Ingredients (for 2 people)

(all my ingredients are preferably organic)

– winter greens, such as mache salad greens

– 1 small beet, (or less), uncooked

– 1 small black radish (or less)

– some pumpkin seeds (optional)

for the dressing :

1 tsp white miso paste + 1 TBSP rice vinegar + 1 TBSP sesame oil

How to:

1. Put the pumpkin seeds, if desired, in a warm pan to sightly puff and toast

2. Wash and prepare the greens.

3. Peel the beet and radish. Cut into long strips using a julienne knife.

4. Prepare the dressing by mixing miso paste first with vinegar then sesame oil.

5. Toss everything in a salad bowl, and enjoy!

with the dressing

Since there wasn’t much to the recipe, I decided to publish the last of my Tokyo photos. Today, dear neighbors, the theme is flowers…

A flower box near the Tokyo Metropolitan Office Building.  Tactile paving on the right, invented in Japan for the blind and visually impaired.  I saw them everywhere in central Tokyo, even in the metro! Once again, I felt awed at the thoughtfulness of these people…

This one was taken on the island of Odaiba.

So was this one, I think.  Are these flowers or cauliflowers?  Unusual, anyway…

A pretty floral arrangement at the entrance of a museum.

A tree near Tokyo Bay, in bloom already even though it was early January!   This is when I realized Japan must be even more beautiful in the spring…

 

 

After we left there were a couple of snowy days in Japan. We saw it in the news and it was a real shock to recognize all the places ! I wonder what happened to the flowers on the tree, but snow in January is better than frost in April, isn’t it ?