Thai Salad Dressing

Thai Salad Dressing

I try to clean out my fridge at least once a month, to sort out what’s still edible and unearth the things that got shoved in the back. And every time I go through this process, whether it’s been two weeks or two months since I last took an inventory, there is inevitably a jar of salad dressing, maybe two, hiding behind something. Sometimes it’s one of the vinaigrettes, or the creamy avocado number, and most recently it was Thai dressing. I may, perhaps, be a little obsessed with homemade salad dressing.

Back in law school I made a bunch of random homemade things. I had time to do things like make homemade marshmallows on a Tuesday night. Those kinds of things are now relegated to project cooking, things I attempt on weekends with lots of spare time for both the cooking and the cleaning up. The list of homemade staples I make on a regular basis now is pretty short: chicken stock, mayonnaise, and salad dressing.

In my defense, homemade salad dressing has a lot going for it. It’s easy to make, it’s significantly cheaper than the store-made equivalent, and most kinds last just about forever in the fridge.

This Thai dressing is fairly time intensive, in terms of salad dressings at least, meaning it takes slightly more than five minutes to put together and requires some chopping. It’s the perfect thing to pour over a bag of pre-shredded slaw, or use as a dipping sauce of chicken wings. Plus, you can’t make a Thai mango salad without it. It’s fresh and tangy, a little spicy, a little sweet, and I can’t find anything like it in the grocery store. Thai food in ten minutes and four ingredients (or five for a vegetarian version)? I can get behind that even at my laziest.

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Thai Salad Dressing

Prep Time 10 minutes
Cook Time 10 minutes
Total Time 20 minutes

Ingredients

  • 1 tbs finely chopped red onion
  • 1 tbs finely chopped chili pepper stems and seeds removed
  • Juice of 4 limes about ½ cup
  • 2 tbs fish sauce Vegetarian alternative: 1½ tbs soy sauce and ½ tbs miso paste
  • 2 tsp sugar

Instructions

  1. COMBINE all ingredients and stir or shake until the sugar is dissolved. The dressing will last in the fridge for at least two weeks and it tastes better as the flavors mingle.

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