Asian Salad Dressing

Filled with sweet-savory flavors, Asian salad dressing is a terrific staple to keep on hand, and super easy to whip up from scratch, in your own kitchen. Brimming with the zippy flavors of soy, sesame, ginger and garlic, my Asian salad dressing is terrific for use in a homemade Asian chicken salad, or even as a light dipping sauce for potstickers or egg rolls!

A Delectable Salad Dressing Filled with Asian Flavor

One of my favorite salads to enjoy when I'm craving something fresh, flavorful and vibrant is a nice, hearty Asian chicken salad...

Loaded with lots of shredded chicken, carrots, wonton strips, chopped greens and cabbage, this sweet and savory salad is as utterly irresistible as it is because of the mouthwatering dressing that it's tossed with.

Deliciously aromatic, Asian salad dressing, with its notes of sesame, soy, ginger, garlic and rice vinegar, is one of my favorites.

Simple to either whirl up in the food processor or even shake up nice and vigorously in a Mason-style jar (my preferred method), my Asian salad dressing recipe beats the pants off the supermarket version (which is often times super sweet), with lots of flavor from the fresh, bold ingredients.

In our household, we even love to use this Asian dressing as a dipping sauce for our potstickers (you can check out my homemade chicken potstickers if you'd like), or to toss with cold or warm ramen noodles—it's even super tasty to dip egg rolls into!

My Asian Salad Dressing Recipe

What I love about making a delectable Asian salad dressing, from scratch, is that you can tweak the flavor profile to match your tastes...

If you like your dressing a bit on the sweeter side, you can always add more honey.

If you like it with more ginger flavor, add more fresh ginger.

Or, if you like a touch more sesame flavor, go ahead—drizzle in a bit more of that!

When I think of a basic Asian salad dressing, it should be balanced, and one should be able to taste each of the ingredients used.

This just makes your homemade Asian salad or noodle dish that much more mouthwatering, as well as those potstickers or other item you may want to dip.

My favorite flavor profile for Asian dressing has good amounts of ginger, sesame and soy, with the addition of earthy garlic for punch.

I also like to use rice vinegar as my base acid, as well as some some honey for that mild touch of sweetness.

When it comes to the oil used, I typically go for avocado or another neutral flavored oil (you can use canola if you'd like), and this helps to create the “body” for this dressing.

Recipe

Asian Salad Dressing

by Ingrid Beer

Print Recipe

This Asian salad dressing is brimming with fresh ginger, sesame, soy and garlic, and even doubles as a delicious dipping sauce!

Category: Condiment
Cuisine: Asian-American

Yield: 14 servings (1 ¾ cups)

Nutrition Info: 155 calories per serving (2 tablespoons)

Prep Time: 10 minutes
Cook time: 0 minutes
Total time: 10 minutes

Ingredients:

• 2 teaspoons freshly grated ginger
• 6 cloves garlic, pressed through garlic press
• 1 tablespoons toasted sesame seeds
• ¼ cup soy sauce
• ¼ cup rice vinegar
• 2 tablespoons honey
• ¼ cup toasted sesame oil
• ¾ cup avocado oil (or other neutral oil)

Preparation:

1. To begin, gather and prep all of your ingredients according to the ingredient list above to have ready and organized for use.
2. To a 16 ounce Mason jar, add all of the ingredients, cover tightly with a lid, and shake vigorously until everything is completely blended and emulsified. (You also can use a food processor, and process everything until blended.)
3. Keep the asian salad dressing in the fridge, and remove a few minutes before you'd like to use it to allow for it to come to room temperature and liquify, if very cold.
4. Use it to dress your favorite Asian-inspired salads, or as a dipping sauce for dumplings or potstickers, or even chicken lettuce wraps or egg rolls.

Tips & Tidbits for my Asian Salad Dressing recipe:

• Freshly grated ginger, or out of a jar: I prefer to use freshly grated ginger for this recipe, because it makes a big difference in flavor of this dressing. But if you'd like to use pre-grated/out-of-a-jar ginger, then opt for one that is good quality and very fresh.
• Honey, for a touch of sweetness: I'll typically opt for honey when making my Asian salad dressing, because it brings a slightly floral note. But another good option is agave. I like to use syrup-like sweeteners when making homemade dressings, as they blend in leaving no graininess as undissolved sugar can sometimes do.
• Rice vinegar, or other vinegar for delicious Asian dressing: Rice vinegar has a nice, neutral flavor with just a hint of natural sweetness and savoriness, and I love it for use in Asian salad dressing and dipping sauces. Another great option in a pinch is apple cider vinegar, which also works really well with this Asian flavor profile.
• Asian salad dressing, not just for salad: This tasty dressing can double as a dipping sauce. So while using it for your Asian chicken salad is ideal, it's quite terrific with potstickers or other Asian dumplings, or to toss with warm or cold ramen noodles.

Craving more Asian-inspired recipes? Check out this Beef Fried Rice, these Chicken Potstickers, these Chicken Lettuce Wraps, these Chilled Garlic-Sesame Udon Noodles, this Spicy Pork with Noodles, this Asian Noodle Salad!