Japanese Style Avocado Egg Salad (和風アボカドサラダ)

This Japanese twist on avocado egg salad packs a punch with its delicious, creamy wasabi mayo sauce, sashimi grade salmon and bonito flakes and spring onion toppings. It only takes 5 minutes to prepare and it's ready to eat in just 20 minutes!

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• What is Japanese avocado salad?
• Step by step recipe

What is Japanese avocado salad?

To tell you the truth, there is no official dish called "Japanese avocado salad" at least in Japan. Instead, it's a salad made with fresh, cubed avocado mixed with Japanese condiments, ingredients and flavours. When a dish has Japanese influence, we often call it "wafu" which means "Japanese style".

My recipe is kind of inspired by Japanese potato salad, but using more typical and peculiar Japanese condiments and toppings.

How I make my avocado salad "Japanese-style"?

I don't know how many times I experimented to complete this avocado salad recipe, but I can say there has been so many! But in the end, I decided to use following ingredients:

• Sashimi-grade salmon (raw)
• Soy sauce
• Japanese Mayonnaise (I use Kewpie)
• Sesame oil
• Light brown sugar
• Boiled eggs
• Mini tomatoes
• Sesame seeds
• Wasabi
• Katsuobushi (bonito flakes)

Out of all ingredients, the ones make this dish especially Japanesey is the use of wasabi and bonito flakes. I was using different ingredients at first, but I re-realised wasabi and avocado are a great combo! On top of that, wasabi works very well with mayonnaise and soy sauce as well.

What is wafu (和風) in Japanese?

Wafu is a Japanese word that describes "Japanese" characteristics and flavor in music, art, architecture, and other arts, as well as in clothing, food, housing, and other aspects of culture. This specific term is always used in contrast to influences from other countries. "Wa (和)" itself refers to Japan. For example, Japanese food is called "Washoku (和食)" in Japan.

So in this case, because avocado is not a native plant in Japan and was imported from other countries at some point, it's appropriate to add "wafu" to avoid confusion and distinguish it from other avocado salads in the world. For example, pasta is originated in Italy, so pasta dishes that have Japanese flavour are often referred as "wafu pasta".

Linguistically, the word wa (和) has nuance of state of tranquility, caring for each other and cooperate with each other, harmony...etc.

Avocado has become very popular plant in the last decade in Japan

Avocado was never really a well known ingredient in Japan up until recently. Not long ago, avocados were only popular among young people and could be found only in fashionable cafes, but now they are so common that they can be found in supermarkets all year round.

According to the Ministry of Finance's "Trade Statistics", there has been a significant increase in avocado imports, from about 44,552.422 tons in 2010 to 79,559.56 tons in 2020.

Today, small amounts of domestic avocados are also being produced, mainly in Wakayama and Ehime prefectures.

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