Crunchy Japanese Salad

A simple salad topping that adds both calcium and soy to your greens are chirimenjako (tiny sardines) and abura-age (deep-fried tofu). I like to fry the chirimenjako in a tiny bit of olive oil and then crisp the abura-age in a non-stick pan. Cut the abura-age into strips and top onto greens with the chirimenjako. Our favorite salad dressing for this is either a ponzu dressing (yuzu, soy sauce, mirin and olive oil) or a Chinese-style dressing of soy sauce, rice wine vinegar, and sesame oil. Both the abura-age and chirimenjako bring a nice texture to the salad.