Saturday, August 2, 2014

Japanese Sesame Salad Dressing

Sesame Soba Salad

It's been a while since inspiration has struck to make anything exciting- these days I sort of just make every second thing I see on blogs/pintrest. Not that that's not exciting, but I haven't had one of those super-exciting 'I NEED to make this' moments.

Until I saw this recipe.


It probably doesn't sound that interesting to most of you.......but let me explain. I had my first taste of Japanese sesame dressing on a cold chilli winter day in Hong Kong, when we made our way to one of my favourite udon noodle restaurants there, and I accidentally ordered an udon salad instead of a bubbling udon noodle soup (served in a hot pot) as I had intended- no thanks to my terrible inability to read the majority of Chinese characters! After the initial disappointment of having a cold dish on a freezing day though, I was very much surprised to find that the salad was unbelievably good, and worth having, even despite the cold weather!

Sesame Soba Salad

We've since sourced a similar dressing at the Asian supermarket here (although it is ridiculously expensive), though the good brands are much harder to find, so I was pretty excited to find a recipe for it (from scratch! yay!) on one of my favourite food blogs, Just One Cookbook. And it's also ridiculously quick and simple to make too! :)

Surprisingly, it was a quite different to the bottled version I had at home in that it had a much stronger sesame taste, whereas the bottled version tasted much stronger of sesame oil (and upon reading the product label, I was not surprised to find that sesame oil was a major constituent of the dressing, and consequently its fat content was pretty high!). The recipe is easy to adjust- I just added more vinegar, sesame oil and sugar until it was to my liking then added it to my originally-udon-salad-but-turned-soba-salad-when-I-realised-I-had-no-udon salad. I served it alongside teriyaki chicken as I'd had it at the restaurant- it was a great lunch :)

Japanese Roasted Sesame Dressing
Recipe from Just One Cookbook

3 Tbsp. roasted white sesame seeds
2 Tbsp. Japanese mayonnaise
2 Tbsp. rice vinegar
1½ Tbsp. soy sauce
1 tsp. sugar
½ tsp. mirin
½ tsp. Sesame Oil

  1. Put sesame seeds in a frying pan and toast them on low heat. When 2-3 sesame seeds start popping, remove from the heat.
  2. Grind the toasted sesame seeds with a motor and pestle until smooth.
  3. Combine all the ingredients in a bowl and whisk everything together. Drizzle on top of a simple salad of ice burg lettuce topped with tomatoes, boiled eggs, wakame, and corn. You can keep the dressing in the refrigerator for up to a week.



33 Comments:

Liz That Skinny Chick Can Bake said...

Lovely noodle salad! The dressing sounds wonderful (love that you were inspired by Nami!). Have a terrific weekend!

Emma @ Bake Then Eat said...

Such an amazing looking salad I would happily have a bowl of this for lunch sounds really good :D

Angie's Recipes said...

It looks very appetizing! I probably will replace mayonnaise with yogurt if I make this for my noodle salad.

Gloria Baker said...

I love this dressing Von!;)

Hester @ Alchemy in the Kitchen said...

Hi Von, love this dressing. I nearly bought a great big tub of sesame seeds the other day but thought 'what on earth am I going to do with such a quantity?' Now I know!

Cakelaw said...

This looks delish - although with the chilly weather here, I'll be waiting til it warms up a bit.

Helen (Grab Your Fork) said...

I do find it crazy to see how expensive goma dressing is. I ended up looking at the ingredients list and realising, hey, I have all those things in my pantry anyway. I use tahini instead of grinding my own sesame seeds - definitely a much cheaper way of sourcing goma dressing!

Cheri Savory Spoon said...

I love noodle salads, and this dressing sounds amazing. Pinned!

Unknown said...

Oh yum, this is almost too simple! I reckon I could do this for my next dinner party as an easy entree. :)
TOD’S men sneaker

Kelly said...

This noodle salad looks wonderful! Love Nami's recipes and this roasted sesame dressing sounds amazing!

Tandy | Lavender and Lime (http://tandysinclair.com) said...

This sounds so good and really worth making at home :)

Rosa's Yummy Yums said...

A tasty dressing! Those flavors are fabulous.

Cheers,

Rosa

Evelyne CulturEatz said...

Just adore this salad dressing. We have a few in stores here, 2 companies right from my city, but never tried to make my own. Your dish looks great.

CQUEK said...

is going to be my weekend menu

Zoe said...

Hi Von,

We love both Nami and Jessie's recipes and I have making my own dressing using Jessie's recipe for more than a month now and we are sticking to this brilliant recipe. Hope that you will like both too. Forget the commercial ones... They are not as good as the homemade ones with freshly roasted sesame seeds.

Zoe

Joanne said...

I love that sesame flavor! This salad is a must try.

Unknown said...

Hmmm...Simple and healthy.... Sounds pretty darn good to me! :D

Pamela @ Brooklyn Farm Girl said...

Definitely craving noodle salad right now!

Ivy Sew said...

Hi Von, thanks for sharing homemade Japanese Roasted Sesame Dressing recipe. I used to buy it from supermarket and now with this yummy recipe of yours, I am definitely going to give this a try. You have a great day and regards :)

Abbe@This is How I Cook said...

Love this dressing and there is nothing like a good sesame noodle salad. This is a great dressing to always have on hand!

Emma | Fork and Good said...

Looks good to me! Now I want noodles...

Unknown said...

Sounds wonderful!! I'm wondering if Japanese mayo is a lot different than regular.

Juliana said...

This noddle salad looks delicious, especially during warm weather...love the sesame dressing...
Hope you are having a great week :D

Monica said...

Nami's recipes are great and I love sesame salad dressing. I bet this tastes so much better than the bottled stuff. I want a cold noodle dish right now.

Treat and Trick said...

Simple yet satisfying dish! May be I need to add some chili to spice it up a bit..

Anonymous said...

Wow, damn delicious!!!
the photgraph is truelly seducing me...
lovin the umami hint of sesame dressing....

Lia Lemon and Vanilla said...

Hi Von,
This suggestion looks so yummy and delicious. I love all kinds of Japanese food and this dressing sounds and looks outstanding!
Cheers,
Lia.

Unknown said...

I like Japanese food, feel great.ブランド靴通販

Unknown said...

I love noodles.. It looks yummy and delicious...

Dolly said...

This looks so nice and healthy!

lisa is cooking said...

I love noodle salads in the summer, and the dressing sounds fantastic!

sprinklesandsauce said...

i am loving this salad...Japanese food is so minimalistic but delicious!

Marcela said...

Wow! It looks insanely delicious!

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