Vegetable salad with shaved seaweed and Japanese dressing

1. To make the dressing, combine all ingredients together in a bowl, whisk and set aside.

2. To prepare the vegetables, bring a saucepan of salted water to the boil. Blanch the beans and baby corn and plunge into plenty of ice water. I like the vegetables to be crunchy for this salad so I usually only blanch the bean and corn for 1 to 2 minutes.

3. Cut the zucchini into one centimetre thick slices and saute in a hot pan with one teaspoon grapeseed oil for about two minutes. Remove from the pan, wipe clean and add another teaspoon of grapeseed oil. Gently saute the shiitake mushrooms and when cooked, place the mushrooms in a small bowl and marinate in one teaspoon light soy sauce or ponzu sauce.

4. Meanwhile, cut the kohlrabi into thick batons. Leave the vegetables at room temperature if you plan on serving the salad right away. Otherwise store the prepared vegetables in the fridge.

5. To assemble the salad, cut the roast pumpkin into six pieces. Place all the vegetables (except the leaves) into a mixing bowl and dress with two tablespoons of salad dressing. Add half the crushed nori and half the shredded shiso. Toss the vegetables gently and season the vegetables with a little salt and leave to marinate for five minutes.

6. To serve, divide the vegetables evenly among six plates, arranging them so you can see each item slightly overlapping.

7. To finish the salad, use the same mixing bowl to dress the remaining leaves, shiso and nori. Dress the leaves with two tablespoons of dressing. As you place the leaves on each plate, gently shake them to remove any excess dressing. The leaves should only be lightly dressed.

8. Carefully arrange and stack the leaves on and around the dressed vegetables. To finish the salad, tear the shaved kombu and scatter over the salad. Finally, sprinkle the toasted sunflowers seeds over each salad and serve immediately.

*Candied kelp, nori and shaved kombu are available from Japanese grocery stores.