Japanese Pasta Salad (Spaghetti Salad)
It takes a mere 10 minutes to make this salad. My Japanese Pasta Salad is a spaghetti salad dressed in Kewpie mayonnaise with Dijon mustard. It is not heavy and is great even as a light meal.Cook Time depends on the type/brand of pasta you use. My pasta needs 8 minutes to cook al-dente.Actual Total Time is about 10 minutes as you can do the preparation while cooking the pasta.
- Prep time
- 5 min
- Cook time
- 8 min
- Yield
- 2 servings
- Difficulty
- MEDIUM
Ingredients
Quantities are shown as originally provided.
- 100g/3.5oz spaghetti (, broken in halves (note 1))
- 2 tsp vinegar
- 25g/0.9oz leg ham slices (, cut to 1cm/3/8" square (note 2))
- 40g/1.4oz cucumber (, thinly sliced)
- A pinch of salt
- 20g/0.7oz onion (, thinly sliced)
- 3 tbsp Kewpie mayonnaise ((note 3))
- 2 tsp Dijon mustard
- 1 tbsp milk (more or less, optional)
- A pinch of salt & pepper
- A couple of lettuce leaves
Instructions
- 1
Cook pasta in a pot with sufficient amount of salted water as per the packet instructions.
- 2
Drain pasta and sprinkle vinegar over the pasta, toss and leave to cool down.
- 3
While cooking pasta, sprinkle a pinch of salt over the cucumber slices and leave for 5 minutes to soften, then squeeze the moisture out.
- 4
Leave the sliced onion in a bowl of cold water for 5 minutes, then squeeze moisture out (note 4).
- 5
Mix the Dressing ingredients in a bowl. If you prefer slightly runny dressing, add milk to adjust consistency.
- 6
Add pasta, ham, cucumber and onion slices to the bowl and mix gently ensuring that the dressing coats every strand of spaghetti.
- 7
Place lettuce leaves (if using) on a serving plate and place the pasta salad in a mound in the centre.