Wakame Salad with Wafu Dressing

If you’re looking for a refreshing and light salad, our 15-minute Japanese wakame salad is ideal! It combines wakame seaweed with crunchy vegetables, all tossed in a savoury wafu dressing, creating a perfect balance of flavours and textures.

Why You’ll Love Our Wakame Salad with Wafu Dressing

What can I say? Our Japanese wakame salad recipe is a refreshing combination of textures and flavours that will you will love.

It’s a fun twist on traditional leafy salads, with wakame seaweed as the star! The combo of crunchy cucumbers, daikon, and edamame tossed in zesty Japanese-style wafu dressing is just delicious. Plus, this easy Japanese salad is perfect during warmer months, cutting through heavier or fried dishes with its light and crisp taste.

Tried and tested at home with the family and they absolutely love it!

If you enjoy green salads, try our herb salad with edible flowers, watercress salad, apple pak choy salad or red beet egg salad. 

What is Wakame?

Wakame is a type of edible seaweed commonly used in Japanese cooking. 

It has a slightly sweet, umami flavour and a tender texture, making it a popular ingredient in salads, soups, and sushi. Wakame is rich in nutrients, including vitamins A, C, E, and K, as well as minerals like calcium, magnesium, and iron. 

Wakame is typically sold dried, and when rehydrated, it expands significantly in size. You can cut to size if required.

It is a fantastic ingredient to use in other Japanese side dishes, and for adding to miso soups or ramen broths.

Ingredients

These are the ingredients you need for cucumber wakame salad:

Dried wakame: Easily found in Japanese or Asian grocery stores, it expands when rehydrated and adds a soft, seaweed flavour.

Cucumber: Crisp and refreshing, cucumber adds a light crunch and balances the savoury flavours in the salad. 

Daikon (White radish): Mildly spicy and crunchy, daikon adds a refreshing bite and vibrant texture to dishes. Select a daikon that feels firm and solid to the touch. Avoid ones that feel soft, limp, or have wrinkled skin. Any leftovers you can use for Korean pickles or Vietnamese Ham Salad.

Edamame: Protein-packed young soybeans, offering a slightly sweet and nutty flavour that is perfect for adding substance to this light salad. We always have a bag of frozen edamame in the freezer ready to go anytime. 

Salad leaves: A mix of fresh, leafy greens that provide a crisp base, adding both texture and nutrients to the salad.

Shallot: Mild and slightly sweet, shallots bring a subtle onion aroma that complements the tangy dressing.

Ginger: Fresh and zesty, ginger adds warmth and a hint of spice to the dressing, enhancing the overall flavour.

Neutral oil: Use a mild-flavoured oil, such as avocado or grapeseed oil, used to blend the dressing without overpowering other ingredients.

Soy sauce / rice vinegar / sugar: These balance the saltiness, acidity, and sweetness in the dressing.

Toasted sesame seeds: Nutty and aromatic, sesame seeds add a rich flavour and a bit of crunch to the salad.

Variations and Substitutions

Wakame variations: If you can find a mix of different types of dried seaweed such as arame or hijiki, try a mix of different flavours and colours. 

Additional Ingredients: Feel free to mix in other vegetables that you might have in your fridge. Try shredded carrots, radishes, avocado, green onions, and pickled ginger for added colour and crunch. 

Alternatively for a complete meal, add your favourite choice of protein such as grilled chicken, salmon or tofu. 

Salad Dressing variation: You can experiment with the dressing depending on what you feel like. For a more creamy option, try our miso mayo dressing or a sweeter combination with our plum ginger dressing.

Instructions

Step by step instructions for how to make cucumber wakame salad:

Rehydrate dried wakame seaweed as per packaging. Normally I soak mine in water for about 5 minutes. 

Remove from water and squeeze any excess moisture. Use scissors or cut wakame into smaller bite-sized pieces if required.

Slice cucumbers into half moons. 
Peel and slice daikon into matchsticks.

Defrost frozen edamame and set aside for assembly.

How to Make Wafu Dressing

Finely chop shallot and grate ginger. 

Mix together in a small bowl, neutral oil, rice vinegar, sugar and soy sauce.

Add chopped shallot, grated ginger and toasted sesame seeds.

Mix together until combined.

How to Assemble Salad

In a large salad bowl, add salad leaves, wakame, cucumber, daikon and edamame.

Dress well with wafu dressing. 

Toss together with salad dressing.

Scatter with extra toasted sesame seeds to serve.

Great Mains for This Salad

What to serve with cucumber wakame salad? Try these delicious recipes:

Nothing beats a traditional or classic Japanese meal. For this wakame salad, pair it with this shoyu ramen recipe with a broth that is salty and spicy.

This wakame salad would also be great with this pork tonkatsu with homemade tonkatsu sauce. It is all meat so a vegetable salad would be a welcome partner. Or if you’re just after something light, you can’t go past chicken yakitori which is flavoursome.

Frequently Asked Questions