Click here for a printable PDF recipe card Asian Dressing

I love Asian chicken salads that you get in restaurants and wanted to make it at home.  As I’ve said before, we stopped buying pre-made salad dressing from the store. Store bought Asian dressings typically contain sugar (and I didn’t want that), nor did I want preservatives in there and lawd (and the South comes out…) knows what else (remember Rodale News’ 6 Dangerous Salad Dressing Facts).  So I set out on making my own and loved the outcome!

Ingredients: Light extra virgin olive oil; toasted sesame seed oil; rice vinegar; Tamari; minced garlic; crushed ginger/ginger paste; honey; dried cilantro; roasted sesame seeds; Tahini; onion powder; crushed red pepper flakes.

First, blend the rice vinegar, Tamari, garlic, and ginger in a small blender.  I do this to thicken the liquid slightly, which later acts as emulsifier and keeps your liquid and oil together (this recipe doesn’t have mustard in it like the Italian Dressing so this is one way I adjusted).

If you don’t have Tahini (and you don’t think you’ll ever use it to make, uh, let’s say hummus), you can do without it.  This was just another emulsifier to keep the liquids and oil together.  It won’t really change flavor of the dressing, but you will probably see more separation of your liquid and oil (which is ok 🙂 just shake it up again before each pour).

Add the rest of the ingredients.  And don’t forget about my little trick that I told you about when we made the Italian Dressing (spray your measuring spoon with cooking spray and the honey will pour right off)

That’s it!  Shake it up and you’re done!  It doesn’t even need to be refrigerated.  We just leave ours on the counter.  You can use it immediately, but like most things it will taste even better if you let it sit an hour or even overnight so the flavors can really come together.

Click here for a printable PDF recipe card Asian Dressing