Red Rice and Avocado with Crispy Burdock Chips – Recipe

Red Rice and Avocado with Crispy Burdock Chips

Here’s another dish I made with those amazing Reed avocados from ChefShop. It looks a little bit fancy, but is very easy to do – just layers of red rice, avocado, shaved red pepper, baby lettuces, burdock chips, and gomashio, flavored with a sesame/miso/yuzu dressing.

Burdock root is a popular vegetable in Japanese and Korean cuisine. It is crispy and sweet, somewhat like jicama but a little more earthy. Maybe more like water chestnut. You can find it at Asian grocers and well-stocked natural foods stores. In Japanese it is known as gobo. Burdock also has a funny connection to velcro.

The burdock chips are made using the microwave as a dehydrator. You just shave thin pieces with a mandoline, lay them out on a plate and microwave a little at a time until they turn crispy. The same move works on a variety of vegetables, from carrot to horseradish. Microwaves work by exciting the water molecules in your food, so with thin slices you can evaporate the water right out. And as restauranters have observed for decades, nothing sells a dish like the word “crispy”. If you have any trouble getting the chips to release with this method, just grease the plate with a drop of oil or pan spray first.

If you don’t have a ring mold (or biscuit cutter), you could always just layer the ingredients in a bowl; it will still be just as good! Also, this miso salad dressing is delicious on cucumbers or just as a general purpose salad dressing.

Red Rice and Avocado with Crispy Burdock Chips
Serves 4
Vegetarian and vegan 

For the dressing

• 1/4 cup white miso
• 2 tablespoons lime juice (or yuzu juice, if you happen to have it)
• 1 tablespoon toasted sesame oil
• 2 teaspoons grated fresh ginger
• Yuzu kosho; start with 1/2 teaspoon and add to taste (if you don’t have that, use a sriracha-style paste + zest from 1 lime)

1. Whisk together all ingredients. Whisk in water as needed to reach a salad dressing consistency. Add more yuzu kosho or chili paste to your preferred heat level.

To complete the dish

• 20 paper thin slices of peeled burdock root, about 6″ long each
• 2 cups cooked red rice, room temperature
• 1 1/3 cups cup diced avocado
• 1 red bell pepper, left whole but cored and then thinly sliced on the mandoline
• A handful of “spring mix” lettuce or other baby greens
• 4 teaspoons gomashio

1. Lay the burdock root out in a single layer on a plate. Microwave on high for 30 seconds at a time until shriveled and crispy, but not burned. It may help to reduce the power for the last couple of cycles. Allow to cool for a minute, then pull up the crisps and set aside.  (If you have any trouble getting the chips to release with this method, just grease the plate with a drop of oil or pan spray first.)
2. To assemble the dish, place a 3 1/2″ ring mold (or biscuit cutter) on a plate. Put 1/2 cup of the rice in the mold and press down to form an even, solid layer. Dress with some of the miso dressing. Layer in one quarter of the avocado and more dressing. Add a thin layer of bell pepper and a bit more dressing. Top with a few leaves of the lettuce and 5 of the burdock chips. Sprinkle with a teaspoon of the gomashio. Carefully remove the ring mold and repeat with the remaining plates.