Daikon Salad with Tofu and Avocado

Sometimes, I just don't feel like cooking.  Especially when it's unseasonably hot out.  Especially when I just want to ride a bike through the park.  Especially when I'm lazy.

For hot, bike-riding, lazy days: daikon salad.

When we received this long white vegetable in our CSA, I was unsure just quite what to do with it.  Confusing it for a turnip, then a parsnip, then realizing that it was the vegetable that stank up my house growing up when my aunt would make daikon soup, I mulled over ways to cook it.  Stir fry it?  Make soup?  Turn it into luo bo gao?  These did not appeal to me.  Like I said, it was h-o-t.  Turning on the stove or oven and making our tiny apartment hotter -- definitely not an option.

So.  I took the daikon.  I lopped off its head.

I peeled it, then thinly sliced it, using a vegetable peeler.  I added some fresh tofu.  I dressed it up with some miso ginger dressing.

Fresh tofu.  So important.  No weird boxy plastic package.  No tofu juice.  Fresh.  From my corner bodega.  I know.  Incredibly lucky, I am.

I happened to have an avocado.  I sliced it and scooped it out of its shell.  I threw it on top.

Sriracha?  Always.  Something about sriracha... it tends to make food disappear.

And there it goes.

Daikon Salad with Tofu and Avocado

1 medium daikon, peeled and trimmed
1 pound fresh tofu, cut into 1/2 inch cubes
1 ripe avocado, halved, pitted, scored into cubes, and scooped out

For the dressing:
1 tablespoon white miso paste
1 tablespoon soy sauce
2 tablespoons rice vinegar
4 tablespoons toasted sesame oil
1 teaspoon minced ginger

In a large measuring cup, combine miso paste, soy sauce, and vinegar.  Add sesame oil and mix well, then add the ginger.

To prepare the daikon: using a vegetable peeler, begin to slice the daikon, moving circularly, from outside in, as if you are continuing to peel the daikon.  You can make the daikon slices as long as the length of the daikon if you want; my slices were about half the length of the daikon.  Alternately, using a sharp knife, slice the daikon into thin slices.

In a large bowl, carefully combine daikon, tofu cubes, and avocado.  Dress the salad and plate, adding a drizzle of sriracha to finish, if desired.