Ponzu Salad Dressing

Some time last year a good friend made me a wonderful salad with lettuce, wakame, enoki mushrooms, and cherry tomatoes. In addition to the wakame surprise, the dressing she used was unlike any I had ever made. No extra virgin olive oil? What? 

The funny thing to me is that after I made this again and wrote the post, I checked through my phone to be sure I had it right and discovered that I had it completely wrong. This is still a light and refreshing salad, but somehow I turned the flavors around and this isn't the same. 

I will give only general directions. If you don't have any wakame, just leave it out. The dressing will taste good over anything. Next time she is free, I'll have her mix up the dressing for me her way so I can get it right!

Salad Ingredients:
lettuce, cleaned and torn into bite-size pieces
enoki mushrooms
cherry tomatoes, halved
wakame, soaked in hot water for 10 minutes and drained
scallions, chopped fine
toasted sesame seeds
Optional: smoked pork jowl (a once-in-a-lifetime ingredient, so obviously don't try too hard- but bacon would be fine)
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Dressing Ingredients:
Ponzu 
soy sauce
sesame oil
pepper

Directions:
Obviously a salad doesn't need directions except for mix and toss, but here's how you mix the dressing to taste. 

Start with the ponzu, which is mostly what your dressing consists of. Add a little soy sauce for salt, a DROP of sesame oil (more and it overpowers everything else), and pepper to taste. 

dried wakame

wakame after soaking in boiling water for a few minutes