Homemade Dressing: Asian Sesame Dressing

Because I am avoiding food additives and trying to eat only “real food”, I’ve been making my own salad dressings. The main reason for this is the dramatic realization that nearly all of the bottled condiments and especially salad dressings contain either High Fructose Corn Syrup or lots of sugar. Because I need to both avoid these ingredients while eating more vegetables, I had to come up with a way to make my own from fresh healthy ingredients.

This has not been as time consuming as I first feared it would be, and has actually proven to be quite tasty and a money saver, especially considering how pricey the salad dressings with healthy ingredients are.

Most of the time, I just use Olive Oil and vinegar on my salad and fresh veggies. Sometimes we need to have something a bit more flavorful, right?

This dressing is an Asian dressing I came up with, similar to Asian cole Slaw dressings, but without the Raman Noodle packet.

The Ingredients of Homemade Asian Sesame Dressing

Again, keeping any glass jar you have for salsa or in this case a Frappuchino (from before I went sugar free!), comes in handy for mixing up and holding onto dressings like this.

I used some Sesame Tahini in the recipe, only because I had some on hand. This ingredient can be a bit pricey, but if you like the taste of sesame in your food (and I do), it’s handy to stock up on when it’s on sale. This past week at one of our grocery stores, sesame tahini was on sale for $3.99 for this jar, which is an incredible price. Given that I only usually use a few table spoons in the recipes I use it in, Tahini also goes a long way.

I also used fresh ginger and fresh garlic in the recipe. Powdered can be substituted; just use it to taste. Dried tends to taste stronger.

Rice Vinegar is also found in the asian foods aisle at most grocery stores. Be sure to read the ingredient list. Some contain high fructose corn syrup (why??!?), so be aware of that. Cider Vinegar can be substituted too. You will also likely find some sesame oil there too.

Finally, the other “strange ingredient” that you don’t likely have in your house at this moment is Chinese Five Spices. This is a spice blend used in oriental cooking. If you love asian food, this is a good one to stock up on.

Asian Ginger-Sesame Dressing

This is not frappuchino …but empty glass bottles are useful for storing homemade dressings and sauces.

Directions