Tofu Avocado Salad

This recipe was inspired by a salad that I had at a ramen restaurant some time ago (gotta have some healthy greens to offset that heavy ramen broth!) I was really impressed that tofu could taste awesome in a salad, and I wanted to make salad that was filling and packed healthy, fresh veggies.

If you have any suggestions, I'd love to hear them!

For a single salad serving, I used:

• Half of an avocado
• Lemon juice and salt (optional)
• A handful of cherry tomatoes
• A handful of salad greens
• About 1/6 of a package of silken or firm tofu - I would recommend using silken (soft) tofu, which has a nice smooth texture that goes well with the avocado. I used firm tofu, because I planned to use the leftovers for stir-fry, but in my opinion, it doesn't taste as good :(
• A carrot - These will be julienned to top the salad and add some crunch; I used baby carrots because they were on hand, but I definitely don't recommend that. Shredding them was really difficult!
• A few spoonfuls of corn
• Japanese miso dressing - I used this Red Shell dressing: http://www.redshell.com/sauces.html. There's also several different recipes online that you can give a try: http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/food-network-kitchens/miso-sesame-dressing-recipe.html

If it seems like a lot of ingredients, feel free to leave things out or swap with whatever you have on hand. At the end of the this Instructables is also a few suggestions for how you might use the rest of your leftover ingredients when you're done!

1. Dice the avocado and place it at the bottom of your dish. You can optionally add lemon juice to help prevent it from browning and for taste and a couple pinches of salt for taste.

2. Halve your cherry tomatoes and layer them over the avocado.

3. Add a handful of greens.

4. Cube some tofu and add that to the salad.

5. Top it off with julienned carrots and corn and drizzle on your dressing.

If you're not making this salad on a large scale, and you need some ideas for what to do with your leftover ingredients, here's a couple recipes that you can try with your leftovers:

• Avocados, lemon, tomatoes - Perfect for a guacamole dip: http://www.simplyrecipes.com/recipes/perfect_guaca... I really like corn, so I'd probably even toss that into the dip too.
• Tomatoes, spinach, corn, lemon - Southwestern soup: http://www.eatingwell.com/recipes/southwestern_chi...

• Silken Tofu - If you bought soft tofu instead of firm, you can try this Chinese dish, tofu with thousand year egg: http://www.tastehongkong.com/recipes/tofu-with-cen... It's really super simple and tastes AWESOME (in my opinion). The egg might be a little bit of an acquired taste though.

• Tofu - In general, tofu makes an awesome addition to your stir fry; you can try something really simple, like soy sauce and ground pork or beef. Another great Asian recipe to try, mapo tofu: http://www.chinasichuanfood.com/mapo-tofu-recipe/.

Have any more ideas for leftover recipes, or suggestions for improving this recipe? Please feel free to comment below :)