Featured Comment
so easy and makes hot humid summer evening bearable. refreshing salad and amazing dressing.
★★★★★
– Hadaas
Want something refreshing this summer? Hiyashi chuka, somen, and hiyayakko are all good. But what about the days when you want something even lighter?
Then this is the summer salad I came up with. I went all in on one thing only, refreshing, and let everything else fall away. Add it to your summer rotation, and you will reach for it.
Summer Shiso Salad
Recipe Snapshot
- What is it? My original Japanese-style summer salad built around a blitzed shiso dressing, with high-water vegetables like tomato and cucumber salted and pressed dry so the bowl stays crisp instead of soggy.
- Flavor profile: Cool and clean up top, herbal and bright from the shiso, with a nutty round depth from toasted sesame oil.
- Why you will love this recipe: It goes all in on one idea, refreshing, dropping the protein and the heavy vegetables so you get a genuinely light bowl for the evenings when even a plate of noodles feels like too much.
- Must-haves: Fresh shiso leaves, a small food processor to emulsify the dressing into one smooth emerald coat, and a little patience to salt and squeeze the vegetables dry.
- Skill level: Beginner-friendly. No heat and no cooking, just salting, draining, and one quick blitz.
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How I Developed This Recipe
Japan has a whole lineup of summer staples, and most of them are supposed to be the cool answer to a hot day. Then the heavier-but-still-summer crowd: chilled wafu pasta, chilled tantanmen, goya champuru. I love all of them. But here is the quiet truth nobody says out loud. Some of those are not as light as they look, and on the worst days of a Japanese summer, even a bowl of noodles can feel like too much.
So I had one job in mind, and only one. I wanted something light. Not light as a compromise, light as the entire point. I picked one direction, refreshing, and I let everything else fall away. That is the honest origin of this salad. It came from subtracting until only the cool, clean part was left.
Summer Shiso Salad Ingredients
- Tomato: This is the juicy, slightly tart anchor of the bowl. Pick ripe ones with real flavor, because in a salad this simple there is nowhere for a bland tomato to hide.
- Edamame: These little green soybeans are here for bite and color. In a bowl of soft, watery vegetables, edamame give you something to actually chew, a pop of firmness that keeps each forkful interesting.
- Shiso (perilla): Shiso carries the aroma that makes the whole salad read as Japanese summer, herbal and bright and a little minty, like nothing else.
How to Make My Summer Shiso Salad
If you prefer to watch the process in action, check out my YouTube video of this Summer Salad recipe for a complete visual walkthrough!
i. Start by dicing your tomatoes into bite-sized pieces.
ii. Sprinkle them generously with salt. Let them rest in a bowl or lounge in a colander for about 10 minutes, just enough for their juices to drip and flavors to concentrate.
iii. Meanwhile, thinly slice cucumbers (aim for 2mm thickness).
iv. Then, give them their own salt rub. Massage gently, then set aside to sweat out excess water.
i. While we wait, combine the sliced shiso, soy sauce, rice vinegar, sugar, toasted sesame oil, and ground sesame seeds in a small food processor.
ii. Pulse until the mixture forms a smooth, emerald-green dressing with tiny flecks of shiso throughout.
iii. The toasted sesame oil adds a rich, nutty depth that balances the bright acidity of the rice vinegar.
i. After 10 minutes, you’ll see pools of liquid around your salted vegetables. Discard all the liquid that has accumulated. For the cucumbers, take this step further: gather them in a clean kitchen towel and gently squeeze to remove every last bit of moisture.
i. Combine the prepared tomatoes and cucumbers with any additional fresh summer vegetables (I used sweet corn kernels, edamame, and shredded shiso leaves) in a serving bowl.
ii. Just before serving, drizzle the shiso-sesame dressing over the vegetables and toss gently to coat.
iii. Serve immediately and enjoy!
More Japanese Salad Recipes
- Japanese Cucumber Salad (Sunomono)
- Sesame Spinach Salad (Horenso no Goma-ae)
- Wakame Seaweed Salad
- Creamy Japanese Avocado Salad
Hungry for more cool, crisp ideas? Explore my Japanese salad recipe collection to find your next summer favorite.
Did You Try This Recipe?
I would love to hear your thoughts!
💬 Leave a review and ⭐️ rating in the comments below. 📷 I also love to see your photos – submit them here!
Summer Vegetable Salad with Sesame-Shiso Dressing
Ingredients
Dressing
- 1 ½ tbsp toasted sesame oil
- 1 tbsp rice vinegar or apple cider vinegar
- ½ tbsp Japanese soy sauce (koikuchi shoyu)
- 5 perilla leaves (shiso)
- 1 tsp ground sesame seeds
- ½ tsp sugar
My recommended brands of ingredients and seasonings can be found in my Japanese pantry guide.
Can’t find certain Japanese ingredients? See my substitution guide here.
Instructions
- Cut 2 tomatoes into bitesize pieces and place them in a bowl with a generous sprinkle of salt. Rest for 10 minutes.
- Thinly slice 1 Japanese or Persian cucumbers and place them in a separate bowl. Sprinkle with salt and massage until evenly distributed, rest for 10 minutes.
- In a small food processor, add 1 ½ tbsp toasted sesame oil, 1 tbsp rice vinegar, ½ tbsp Japanese soy sauce (koikuchi shoyu), 5 perilla leaves (shiso), 1 tsp ground sesame seeds and ½ tsp sugar. Blitz until smooth.
- After 10 minutes, drain the water from the tomatoes and squeeze the cucumber thoroughly. Wrap the cucumber with kitchen paper and squeeze again to remove as much moisture as possible.
- Arrange the tomato and cucumber in a serving bowl along with 50 g edamame and 4 tbsp canned sweet corn. Shred 5 perilla leaves (shiso) and place them on top.
- Drizzle with the dressing right before serving and mix well until evenly coated. Enjoy!
so easy and makes hot humid summer evening bearable. refreshing salad and amazing dressing. I couldn’t get shiso leaves so used cilantro. next time I will try basil… thank you for this wonderful recipe.
Hi Hadaas,
Thank you so much for trying this recipe! That makes me really happy to hear! Love how you made it your own with cilantro, thanks for sharing your twist!
Yuto