We hosted a Japanese-inspired dinner party with The Baltimore Supper Club over the weekend. We tried so many amazing and unique dishes. I continued to feel inspired, so I made this beautiful Zucchini Soba Salad with Seared Tuna. I paired this soba salad with wasabi mayonnaise and salmon roe. It is a perfect healthy, flavorful dinner that looks beautiful.
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For this recipe, I use a wasabi-infused neutral cooking oil to add extra zing. I found it at my local Asian grocery store, but if you cannot find it, simply use neutral cooking oil.
I absolutely love wasabi mayonnaise and the addition of both wasabi paste and wasabi oil give this mayonnaise a LOT of kick that works perfectly on quickly seared tuna.
For the ‘soba’, I took a break from carbs, so I used zucchini soba noodles. This recipe will work fine with any noodle or ‘noodle’ – whether it’s traditional soba noodles, cold ramen or rice noodles or vegetable substitutes such as butternut squash noodles, kohlrabi noodles, or zucchini noodles.
This zucchini soba salad with seared tuna is light and refreshing. When I plated this recipe I could not believe how stunning it looked on the plate. The red from the salmon roe creates a beautiful, salty contrast to everything on the plate. However, if you can’t find salmon roe, you can simply omit it.
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Zucchini Soba Salad with Seared Tuna
Equipment
- Skillet
Ingredients
Wasabi Mayonnaise
- ½ cup mayonnaise
- 2 tablespoons wasabi paste more or less to taste
- 2 teaspoons wasabi oil or neutral cooking oil, more or less as needed
- Salt and pepper to taste
- Water as needed, to thin it out
Zucchini Soba Salad
- 12 ounces zucchini noodles
- 1 tablespoon soy sauce more or less to taste
- 1 tablespoon mirin
- 1 teaspoon sesame oil
- Salt and pepper to taste
Seared Tuna
- ¾ pound ahi tuna steak
- 2 teaspoons wasabi oil or neutral cooking oil
- ½ cup sesame seeds white, black, or a mix
- 2 teaspoons neutral cooking oil for frying
Salad Garnish:
- 4 ounces watercress or other green of choice
- 1 tablespoon salmon roe optional
- Shichimi Togarashi
Instructions
Prepare Wasabi Mayonnaise:
- Combine all ingredients for the mayonnaise except the water in a bowl. Whisk until smooth. Add a few teaspoons of water until the mayonnaise reaches a consistency that allows you to drizzle it easily. You will probably need 2-3 tablespoons. Whisk after each addition, being careful not to make the sauce too watery. Season with salt and pepper and set aside.
Prepare the Soba Salad:
- Put the zucchini soba noodles in a large bowl and drizzle with soy sauce, mirin, and sesame oil and toss to combine. Taste and season with salt and pepper if needed. Divide the noodles between two plates. Place the fresh watercress on top of each plate and set aside.
Prepare the Tuna:
- Heat 2 teaspoons of neutral cooking oil in the skillet over high heat until very, very hot.
- As you wait for the skillet to become hot, brush the tuna with wasabi oil and season all over with salt and pepper. Arrange the sesame seeds on a plate and coat the tuna with the seeds.
- Place the tuna in the hot skillet and cook for about 1 minute 30 seconds per side for rare. Transfer to a plate. Slice the tuna against the grain into thin slices.
To Serve:
- Immediately place the sliced tuna on top of the watercress. Drizzle the entire dish with wasabi oil and spoon the salmon roe on top of the tuna. Sprinkle with shichimi togarashi. Serve immediately. Enjoy!
- You will likely have leftover wasabi mayonnaise. Reserve it for another use.
