Sesame Dressing, How to Make Your Salad Rich and Creamy

This Creamy Sesame Dressing is the rich, BIG umami dressing with just 5 ingredients that I've been putting on everything from salads to roasted vegetables and even as a dip for hot pot, ever since I tried it in a restaurant and duped it YEARS ago. Shall we?

This Creamy Sesame Dressing is one of those dressings that sort of defies categorization because it was intended first to be a salad dressing, but because the texture is so velvety, it also works as a dip for hotpot, a finishing sauce for roasted vegetables, and even as a savory marinade for chicken, fish, and tofu.

Explore More

• What Ingredients You Need for Sesame Dressing
• What Kind of Sesame Paste Do You Use for Dressings?
• Best Substitute for Sesame Paste?
• Is Sesame Dressing Healthy?
• How to Use Creamy Sesame Dressing
• Creamy Sesame Dressing Recipe

What Ingredients You Need for Sesame Dressing

• Sesame seed paste, ¼ cup
• Rice vinegar, ¼ cup
• Mayonnaise (plant-based), 2 tablespoons
• Tamari, 2 tablespoons (sub soy sauce, tho it's not gluten-free)
• Maple syrup, 1 tablespoons
• Ginger, 1 teaspoon grated fresh
• Water

Option: ground black pepper

Sesame paste is a condiment made of toasted sesame seeds that have been ground down into a paste. There are a few different types of sesame paste that vary in flavor, color, and most importantly (to me) intensity of the umami. No surprise here, but the umami-er, the better.

Asian sesame paste is made with toasted sesame seeds, usually white sesame seeds, though black sesame seeds are used for a specialty version. Both Japanese sesame paste, called neri goma, and Chinese sesame paste, called zhī ma jiàng, will work here. Just make sure that what you use has only "sesame seeds" listed in the ingredients.

Middle Eastern tahini is also a type of sesame paste, though unlike Asian sesame paste, it is made from raw untoasted, or very lightly toasted sesame seeds. The flavor is more subtle and the color is lighter.

Though Asian sesame paste and tahini are similar, they are not exact 1:1 flavor substitutes for each other. If you don't have Asian sesame paste but do have tahini, use the same amount of tahini, plus a teaspoon of toasted sesame oil for that deeper umami flavor.

• Chinese Pure Sesame Paste, the brand I bought at 99 Ranch and currently use
• Organic Japanese Sesame Paste
• current favorite tahini brand, and this organic brand

Best Substitute for Sesame Paste?

If you don't have access to Asian-style sesame paste, you can substitute with the Middle Eastern sesame paste tahini 1:1 and add a teaspoon of toasted sesame oil to make up for the deep flavor.

Peanut butter is actually a better flavor match, but peanut and sesame seeds are, of course, totally different ingredients, so if there are allergies or dietary considerations, keep that in mind.

Additional Ingredients Notes, Resources, and Substitutions

Rice Vinegar. Use this brand organic brown rice vinegar. If you don't have rice vinegar, use any other light/mild vinegar like apple cider vinegar or white wine vinegar.

Mayonnaise. I use a plant-based (vegan) mayo made with avocado oil, either this brand or this brand. The reason I use plant-based is not that I'm vegan, but that I am weirded the F out by raw egg, which is a primary ingredient in most regular mayonnaise. Japanese Kewpie mayo seems like it would be the right "Asian match" choice here. If MSG and raw egg are okay for you, Kewpie is available on amazon.com, 

Tamari (or soy sauce). Tamari is a Japanese-style soy sauce that is brewed without wheat so it is gluten-free. This is the brand I use, which is also organic. You can use regular soy sauce.

Maple Syrup. I use organic maple syrup that is dark in color and more robust in flavor than lighter colored maple syrups. You can substitute with honey, though the dressing will no longer be vegan, or other sweetener of choice.

Is Sesame Dressing Healthy?

As presented, this recipe for creamy Sesame Dressing is:

• 100% plant-based/vegan
• vegetarian
• dairy-free
• gluten-free
• refined sugar-free

How to Use Creamy Sesame Dressing

Use this creamy Sesame Dressing on salads, as a drizzle sauce for grain bowls, as a non-spicy alternative for the usual gochujang-based sauce for Bibimbap, and as a super rich and flavorful marinade for salmon and chicken.

The original use for this dressing when I first started making it was for a Seared Tofu Salad inspired by a Japanese restaurant in Los Angeles that has long since closed. I found the recipe in the Los Angeles Times about 15 years ago; yeah, back when I actually read hard copies of newspapers, and I adapted it to my taste. That recipe follows below, in which one block of tofu can make enough for four starter size salads, or one Delicious-sized salad.

Seared Tofu Salad with Sesame Dressing

Slice 1 block of firm tofu into ½-¾" thick slices. Place several sheets of paper towels on a plate, lay the slices in a single layer on the paper towels, then lay another set of several sheets of paper towels on the tofu. Put another plate on top of the whole stack, and press down with a weight. I use regular sized cans of broth or vegetables. Let tofu sit for about 30 minutes to drain some of the water.

Heat 2-3 tablespoons avocado oil in a skillet over a medium flame. Place two slices of drained tofu in the skillet. The water in the tofu might cause a little bit of a splatter when it hits the hot oil, so be careful. Fry the tofu slices for about 3 minutes on each side until lightly browned, then place on dry paper towels to drain the oil. Let cool slightly.

Place 2-3 handfuls of salad greens—originally it was "mesclun" or spring mix, but I have since accepted that no one actually likes those sad, wilty greens and now unapologetically use crisp, crunch shredded romaine—on each individual plate or salad bowl. Top salad greens with 2-3 slices of fried tofu, julienned cucumber, julienned carrots, and radish sprouts.

Drizzle each serving with 2 tablespoons of Sesame Dressing. Garnish with lightly toasted sesame seeds and julienned nori.

Best Salads for Sesame Dressing

• Sub for peanut sauce in this Soba Noodle Salad
• super crunchy crispy Cabbage Apple Salad
• Mandarin Chicken Salad as pictured above
• Sub for the sesame-based dressing in LA-Style Chinese Chicken Salad

Sesame Dressing as a Sauce or Dip

• Dipping sauce for Shabu Shabu or hotpot
• Tossed with any Roasted Vegetables, my favorite the Japanese Sweet Potatoes
• Stir into Hot Rice or Quinoa for a Grain Bowl
• Dip for crunchy vegetable crudités
• Dip for Fresh Summer Rolls

Tofu or Not to Fu

Normally, Tofu Salad is a half-block of plain, firm tofu cut into slices and tossed on top of vegetables. Every once in a while I get creative and add…nothing. I never get creative with Tofu Salad. How many different ways are there to make a tofu salad?!?!

Not many. About as creative as you can get is changing the dressing. Ranch dressing, however, does not work with tofu salad.

I am in possession of the recipe for the Creamy Sesame Dressing that made Mishima’s Tofu Salad the standard back in the day. When I first ate the salad in the restaurant, the dressing was the first of its kind that I had ever tasted - creamy, tangy, hinted with sesame. It had a power over me something like what I would imagine an Asian ranch, not the flavor, but the fact that I wanted to dip every dippable piece of food in it.

I have the recipe, but I never use it. I made the dressing once, and it tasted great, but the thought of it basically being a bowl of lightly beige-tinted fat makes me gag. Look, I am not afraid of fat; I just don’t like the mix of peanut butter and mayonnaise, which is the foundation of the dressing. I cannot imagine ever eating a sandwich made of peanut butter and mayonnaise, so there is no way that whisking them together with soy sauce makes it any better.

Then again, I used to eat sandwiches made of Iceberg lettuce squashed between two slices of Wonder White smeared with Miracle Whip and sprinkled with sugar.

*shudders* Miracle Whip. Thank god for changing tastes.