If you ever wonder where you can get the kind of salad dressings that are served at every Japanese steakhouse or restaurant, these recipes are perfect for you to try. While there are some bottled Japanese dressings available at grocery stores, they are not exactly the same as restaurant-style dressings. You may be surprised that these dressings are so easy to make at home with simple and fresh ingredients. Hope you try them soon!
Onion Dressing (オニオンドレッシング) is a salad dressing made with grated brown onion, Soy Sauce, and rice vinegar. This dressing is full of onion flavor, but not as harsh as you may think. It is not only good on regular salad, but it’s also great with grilled meat and seafood.
Wasabi Dressing is a Soy Sauce-based salad dressing with a kick of Wasabi flavor. It can add an instant Japanese flavor just by drizzling over your ordinary salad or vegetable dishes. Most of us outside Japan don’t have access to fresh Wasabi root, and are likely to use Wasabi paste in a tube, or a powder form that is simply mixed with water to make a paste. These are both perfectly fine here. The amount of Wasabi for the dressing is up to your taste. Some brands are spicier than others, so adjust how much to use to your taste. We have often used the dressing with salad greens, deep fried lotus roots and Kabocha squash, but also boiled or grilled vegetables would do well. Wasabi Dressing is so easy to make, it only takes a matter of minutes and brings a dish in a new direction.
Miso Dressing is a tasty Miso based dressing great for salads, simple boiled vegetables (as in the recipe), and even cooked meat. This salty sweet dressing tastes quite different from western dressings, but you’ll like it if you like the flavor of Miso.
You can use either white or Awase (between red and white) Miso for the dressing. Red Miso may have too strong of a flavor for this dressing. A key flavor of the dressing other than Miso is sugar. We think a bit on the sweet side tastes better, but you can decide how much sugar you would like to use. Depending on what kind of Miso you choose, you may have to adjust the amount of sugar. White Miso is much sweeter, so beware.
Carrot Ginger Dressing is the dressing used in many Japanese restaurants in the US. The more American the restaurants are, the more likely they use this dressing for their salad, it seems. We have never seen the Carrot Ginger dressing in restaurants in Japan, so this must be an American thing. Where this originally came from is a little unclear, but it is said that some Japanese steak house restaurants started serving or something. Even though this may not be very authentic Japanese food, still the bright orange dressing is quite tasty and we would like to include it in our Japanese recipes.
Sesame Dressing is a mayo based dressing with a burst of sesame flavor that is popular for salad in Japan. It has more calories than soy sauce based dressings, but it tastes so good. There are a lot of bottled sesame dressings at Japanese supermarkets, but it is very easy to make at home.
I love the taste of fresh ginger. Tangy, juicy, and a little spicy this root tastes really good especially when it’s freshly grated and mixed with soy sauce. We use the soy sauce and ginger combination in many types of dish such as grilled meat, tofu, or dipping sauce for cold noodles. Salad dressing is also a great way to enjoy the full flavor of ginger and soy.
All you need to do to make this scrumptious dressing is to peal and grate fresh ginger and combine all the ingredients . You can add some sesame seeds and sesame oil to make it even more flavorful, but it’s optional. Garlic is also an option but I like it with just a tiny bit for a kick (not too much.) Please don’t substitute fresh ginger with powdered one. It’s just not the same!
Pour the dressing over simple greens or with some grilled seafood or tofu.