Cabbage-Cilantro salad with lemony dressing

V and I have a New Year's resolution to do more salads this year. Salads are so much fun (done creatively), and so little work that I wonder why we don't do it more often. Many of our friends claim they now pack a salad for lunch, but I am yet to find out how that would work - wouldn't it get soggy?

Last evening, we had run through all our leftovers from the weekend and were too tired to cook anything new. And since I had just been browsing this recipe with beautiful pictures, I decided to put together a cabbage salad. A while back I had read somewhere that it is not a good idea to eat fruits and vegetables at the same time as per Ayurveda principles since they have different digestion rates. Since then, I am reluctant to mix fruits in to my salads. Except maybe spinach salad with pears sometimes, since it is so good!

Here's the recipe for the cabbage salad I put together yesterday with some random vegetables in the refrigerator. One of our friends recently introduced us to "Baked Tofu" available in Asian grocery stores in our area. It has a very firm texture and doesn't fall apart like the tofu that is packed in tubs with water.

Cabbage - quarter of a small one shredded fine (1 cup)
Cilantro - about 1/2 cup shredded fine
Daikon radish - half of a medium one shredded on a grater
1 cube of tofu - cut in to about 16 bite size chunks
Red onion - half of a small one minced fine
Ginger - half inch piece grated

Dressing:
Lemon juice - 2 Tbsp
Olive oil - 4 Tbsp
Rice vinegar - 1 Tbsp
Pinch salt + black pepper
Whisk all the above together well with a whisk or fork.

Toasted sunflower seeds and walnuts for garnish
To prepare the nuts: Heat oven to 375C. Spread sunflower seeds and walnuts on separate cookie sheets and toast for 10 minutes.

Mix all ingredients except the sunflower seeds and nuts. Toss together with the dressing. (The longer this salad sits, the better it gets.) Sprinkle nuts on top just before serving.

This recipe is for The Salad Carnival at "Cook like a Bong", as well as Show me your salad at "Dil se".