This Asian Sesame Dressing is one of my all time most-used salad dressings, because it keeps for weeks and it’s so easy to make – just soy sauce, sesame oil, olive oil, vinegar and sugar.
Use this Asian dressing for leafy green salads, Asian slaws, noodle salads and chopped salads. It’s also a terrific dressing to make steamed vegetables so much tastier. Finish with a sprinkle of fresh sesame seeds and sliced greens onions!
Instant Asian Sesame Dressing
This Asian Sesame Dressing is one of eight ready-to-use salad dressing recipes that I shared in this post: Ready To Use Salad Dressings. I’ve been wanting to share a bunch of long shelf life salad dressings for ages and was so glad to finally have an excuse to!
This Asian Sesame Dressing is fantastic. It was originally off the back of a packet that I’ve adapted slightly to my taste. The reason it’s one of my most used dressings is because it literally takes 30 seconds to make – grab a few bottles, eye ball the measurements, shake and you’re done.
No need to mince garlic, grate ginger of chop fresh herbs. This Sesame Dressing is simple and it’s perfect just as it is. However, you can of course doll it up as you wish! It’s a fantastic base recipe. 🙂
I literally use this dressing for all things Asian and Asian-esque. But one of my favourite ways to use this dressing is with shredded cabbage and carrots. So an Asian slaw, if you will. 🙂 Especially if you grab a bag of pre shredded cabbage, as I did for these photos (I used a Crunchy Slaw pre cut mix from David Jones, I ❤️the DJ’s Food Hall!!).
The other thing I use it for is sashimi salads. Leafy greens, cherry tomatoes and some store bought fresh sashimi, topped with crunchy fried shallots and this dressing. It’s a 1 minute dinner assembly!
Because this Asian Sesame Dressing doesn’t use any fresh ingredients that go off, it has a very long shelf life. I keep it for 3 weeks. I like to keep it in the fridge, just to be safe (and also because I keep my soy sauce refrigerated, and this has soy sauce in it).
SUCH a fantastic standby dressing! Nagi xx
PS Pictured below is an Asian Slaw made using the David Jones Crunchy Slaw mix (green and red cabbage, carrots), a sprinkle of store bought fried shallots, tossed with this Asian Sesame Dressing.
PPS In the recipe below, I’ve shared a big batch (1 cup) to make and keep, and single batch too (i.e. enough for one side salad for 3-4 people).
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Asian Sesame Dressing
Ingredients
Big batch to keep (makes 1 cup)
- 1/4 cup soy sauce
- 2 tbsp toasted sesame oil
- 1/4 cup white vinegar (adjust to taste for sharpness)
- 1/4 cup olive oil (Note 1)
- 1 tbsp sugar (any type) or 1 1/2 tbsp honey
Single serving batch
- 1 tbsp soy sauce
- 2 tsp toasted sesame oil
- 1 tbsp white vinegar
- 1 tbsp olive oil (Note 1)
- 1 tsp sugar (any type) or 1 1/2 tsp honey
Instructions
- Place ingredients in a jar and shake well until sugar is dissolved. Adjust saltiness with salt and sweetness with sugar to taste.
- Keep for up to 3 weeks, in the fridge (to be safe). Bring to room temp and shake well before use.
- Single serving batch is enough for 3 - 4 cups of shredded cabbage / leafy greens i.e. a side salad for 4 people.
- Big batch - my rule of thumb for how much dressing to use is generally 1 tbsp of dressing per 1 packed cup of shredded vegetables and 2 tsp per handful of leafy greens.
Recipe Notes:
Nutrition Information:
Don’t miss all the other Ready To Use Dressings I shared! These all last for 2+ weeks, most for 3 weeks.Find them all here.
A very popular dressing at our place. Super easy to make and perfect to have on a simple green salad
Very Good – I used rice wine vinegar instead of white, but then needed more sweetener, so I added bourbon maple syrup I had in the fridge. Great as written, but next time I think I will add a little ginger & garlic and add some hot sesame oil as well for a little kick – Thank you!
Fantastic recipe, simple and flavorful. I used it to marinade baby green lettuces then stuffed them to make Vietnamese Spring Rolls.
Would you suggest an alternative to sesame oil ( due to allergy) for this and other Asian recipes please?
Made this to serve over steamed broccoli. Was absolutely delicious. Next time, I’ll put a little less soy sauce.
1/2 teaspoon of garlic powder and 3/4 teasp00n of guar gum make a dressing which has more body and sticks to the salad better.
What sort of white vinegar in the Asian dressing please?!
Thanks
I made this for lunch today to dress a romaine salad to accompany potstickers. So easy, so delicious. I’m trying the maple vinaigrette next!
Anything with salt sugar and fat will taste excellent because it’s how we’re wired. Is it possible to replace the sugar? Like with honey?
It does say in the recipe that you can replace the sugar with honey.
Excellent dressing. Had it as a dressing/marinade on some air-fried zucchini cubes last night.One of the many things I like about your recipes is that when you say “3 min” it really is 3 min! Tomorrow I will put it on my first harvest of home-grown kale. Thank you, and thanks to your mom.
I love this .. but I’m having a very special lunch and want a really impressive complex dressing for a soba salmon salad main course with lots of fresh crunchy tastes. I’m pretty sure of all the ingredients I love, ginger, chilli, lime, etc but could you give quantities or recommend a really special recipe?
Yummy yummy 😋 This is the best dressing ever and love that you gave us single serving directions too. Can’t wait for your cookbook. Thanks much
I made this but had to use regular sesame (Toasted is ordered). I’m making some with slaw tomorrow. I may portion some out and add a dash of ginger to it for that.
12 days I get your book and I’m so excited. I am retiring from corporate finance end of April and I can’t wait to cook every night. I ordered the Kindle but I think I’m going to also get a hard copy. I think I “need” to examine it for Christmas presents! ; )
That’s what I keep telling myself!
PERFECT! I did add 2 light shakes of powdered ginger, but it really was perfect beforehand; just my personal taste to add a smidge of ginger. Thank you for this recipe!
great recipe, however, what kind/brand of soy sauce is used? The provided sodium content in a single serve of this dressing says 226 mg. But the label on my Kikkoman Soy Sauce says 1 Tblsp has 590 mg of sodium, and that’s the low sodium version. Thank you
Hi Nagi, when you use white vinegar is it just plain old white in the big containers from the supermarket? Is there a difference?
Very tasty and so few ingredients! Just made it and will put it over a kale, buckwheat noodle, carrot, cabbage salad. Will add some cherry tomatoes for color!
Thank you for the single serve batch Nagi. It really came in handy tonight and made it so much easier than working it out for myself. 😊
Hi Nagi, what could I substitute for soy as my daughter has a soy allergy. Thankyou
You can use coconut aminos as a replacement for soy.
Love this dressing. Have shared with others. On repeat in my house. Thank you!