Asian Peanut Salad Dressing + Dipping Sauce
8 Jul
When I used to go out for sushi on a semi-normal basis, my favorite part wasn’t necessarily the sushi… It was the complementary salad that some of the restaurants I frequented would offer. More specifically, it was the ridiculously delicious peanut dressing that was dolloped on the lettuce leaves. However… the whole “mayo” and “high fructose corny syrup” and “preservative” thang was sort of a turn-off.
Do you want to know something funny? I love lettuce — I will eat it like an apple right off the head, I will chomp on leaves like a rabbit, I will eat a salad without any dressing at all. And I’ll like it. I am not a dressing person… But I also know that I am a freak little different than most people. And since I want to serve healthy food to the people I love, I realize that I’m a lot more persuasive when I serve my veggies with a little somethin’ somethin’ to drench them in. I’m no fool, folks — I am fully cognizant that my friend Joshua comes over to our place to eat solely for the honey mustard poppyseed dressing. Hey, I’m just glad he’s eating a fresh vegetable… those bachelors like to get a little reliant on smoothies and breakfast burritos, from what I hear… (<3 you Joshua!)
When a lovely reader named Brenda asked if I could please post some more dressings (apparently she, too, is hooked on the honey mustard poppyseed), and preferably ones that don’t require a blender, I was more than delighted to oblige. So, here is the first in hopefully a string of successful vegetable-disguising-or-complementing-depending-on-your-perspective dressings! I served an unfortunately water-ed down version of this with the cucumber-wrapped salads (apparently I have sushi on the brain lately, eh?), along with another dressing yet to be published. I tweaked this by eliminating the added water altogether and voila! Perfection. It’s now gone after just one sitting between the Husband and myself. Yes, we like to eat.
The best part? You probably already have all the ingredients, and it takes about 2 minutes total to get everything together, poured, and whipped up. Win!
Ingredients:
1/4 C peanut butter
2 Tb agave
1.5 Tb lemon or lime juice (fresh)
1 Tb apple cider vinegar
2 tsp gluten-free tamari (you can sub soy sauce if you eat gluten)
Recipe(ish):
1) Mix all ingredients in a bowl or small glass mason jar. Cover and store in the fridge.
Wow. One step. That’s pretty easy, yes? Not to mention it is crazy healthy! This dressing has a protein punch thanks to the peanut butter, which I don’t think any other variety of salad dressing can boast. It’s also versatile; it would be delicious as a sauce to toss with stir-fry, or pour over whole grains like millet or brown rice (my BFF Manfriend will be coating his pasta with this from now on), or in a number of other delicious scenarios. (Personally, I’ll be eating the salad I just made for these photos. It’s 8am, but I don’t care. It’s awesome. So. Yeah.)
Go nuts with the possibilities! (No pun intended; peanuts are legumes, not nuts…hehe.)
In other news, this weekend, I will be staying up in the mountains with my mom’s side of the family. We get the chance to celebrate my grandma (I called her G-Funk, and yes, she was adorable and loved it) and her life, which ended early this spring. Even though I am saying my final goodbye to one of my best friends (I mean that sincerely), and it will feel strange to be savoring all the things she loved without her, I am so thankful that we get to be together in one of her favorite places, and enjoy nature just as she would have.
What are you doing this weekend?
Have you ever tried the awesomesauce that sushi places serve on salads?
I love that sauce and therefore need to make this dressing asap. I do have all the ingredients, good thing lunch is in 30 minutes for me!
Yay! It’s a bit thinner because it doesn’t have the mayo, but you can easily tweak it by adding more pb and such
Let me know how it goes!
This dressing sounds awesome! I bet it would be great over stir fry!
I have to work tonight and tomorrow night. I have never actually eaten sushi but at the Thai restaurant here they have a tasty peanutty salad dressing. I’m sure this one is pretty similar!
Thanks Abby! Yes, I think it would be so good over some steamed broccoli…. Ugh, drooling and it’s not even 10am
You need to try sushi, lady; the vegetarian rolls are so good. Wasabi and gf tamari are my best friends. Have a great weekend — hopefully work won’t be too demanding 
Will def try this dressing AANNNDD will be sending love for your weekend!!! Hugs!!
Thanks Cassie!
Let me know what you think of the dressing if you give it a go! <3
How about I eat this with a spoon? Mmkay?
Celebrate and savor life this weekend, and don’t check in with technology! That’s an order.
I do expect an email back from you sometime soon though. xo.
MMMMMM – beautiful pix too!
Thanks Kris! xoxo
Yumm! I love these flavors together! can’t wait to try it out!
Thanks Sarah! Hope you love it
I’m totally making BOTH those dressings. This one looks great and yes, totally easy! Love it.
Yesterday during lunch, I grabbed a handful of lettuce leaves and was eating them like someone would eat chips. My sister just looked at me like I was crazy. Then I realized that I do that a lot. I LOVE the crisp, clean, wonderful taste of greens!
So, anyway, we can be weird together, my friend.
Yay! It comes together so quickly, it’s ridiculous. I am the same way! I think it’s the water content of lettuce that I love, and like you said, the crispness. Let’s chomp on leaves the next time we meet, mmkay?
So glad you posted this! I love this dressing!
Thank you Jane!
I love it too. So versatile and easy!
I have made this sauce 3 times since you posted it- mainly for stirfry! It is so good and easy! It is perfect when I don’t have a lot of time to pull dinner together. I did make some substitutions, but I’m sure the flavor is comparable. I used sunbutter instead of peanut butter, coconut nectar (YUM- have you tried this?) for the agave, and coconut aminos instead of tamari. I could eat this stuff all day long! Thanks so much for the recipe.
Shelby, that is so AWESOME! It comes together so quickly, it’s hard to believe that something could taste so good and be so easy
Mmm, all your substitutions sounds delicious! I really want to try coconut sugar and coconut nectar (same thing?) — I’ve heard they are awesome nutritionally. So glad you liked it, and thank you so much for letting me know! xo!
oh my goodness, i just whipped this up and it is amaaaaaazing! haven’t even put a salad together yet, just had a spoonful. it’s awesomesauce, literally.
This comment goes in my “Best Ever” category. Awesomsauce!!!
Love peanut dressing- and i have a jar of PB to use up before travelling again! Thanks for the inspiration
and stop by sometime!
Thanks Alexia! Will do.