Creamy and nutty, this homemade Japanese Sesame Dressing is made from ground roasted sesame seeds, mayo, rice vinegar, and soy sauce. It’s easy and so delicious with your green salad!
I love a salad dressing that has unlimited potential. And this Japanese Sesame Dressing (胡麻ドレッシング) has it all: it’s creamy, full of umami, nutty, and mildly sweet with a tang. You can use it on any combination of greens and switch up the variations as you feel like. Best of all, it’s so, so easy.
If you eat salads year-round, you want to keep a bottle of this homemade dressing in your fridge at all times!
Popular Japanese Salad Dressing
Japanese home cooks often serve a side of salad when we prepare Yoshoku, Japanese-western influenced dishes for dinner. This sesame dressing is a favorite choice because it’s creamy and full of flavor.
Not only it pairs beautifully with simple green salads, but it’s also delicious on cold noodles, or as a sauce for grilled meat, grilled bok choy, and tofu.
For my typical style salad, I have iceberg lettuce, sweet corn kernels, tomato wedges, and wakame. Sometimes I top the combo with half a hard-boiled egg for extra protein before I serve over the dressing.
Ingredients You’ll Need:
To make this sesame dressing, you’ll only need simple pantry ingredients that are common in Japanese kitchen:
- Toasted sesame seeds – I usually give the pre-toasted sesame seeds another quick toasting in a frying pan to bring out a more aromatic and nutty flavor.
- Mayonnaise – I recommend using Japanese mayonnaise (Kewpie Mayo) as it has a richer flavor. This is my homemade recipe if you can’t find the storebought one.
- Rice vinegar – Unlike other kinds of vinegar, rice vinegar has a mellow yet refreshing aroma. You can sub it with apple cider vinegar or a squeeze of lemon juice but dilute with some water.
- Soy sauce – Soy sauce lends savoriness to the dressing. Tamari or gluten-free soy sauce works fine too.
- Sugar – I use granulated sugar, but you can use other types of sugar such as turbinado or raw cane sugar.
- Mirin – Add a bit more water if you can’t find mirin.
- Toasted sesame oil – It binds everything together with its irreplaceable nutty fragrance.
My husband likes the dressing to be on the tangy side, so I use a bit more rice vinegar. But always feel free to adjust the ratio of ingredients to suit your taste!
What to Serve with Sesame Dressing
If you plan on using the sesame dressing over a simple salad, here’s what I suggest serving it with:
But don’t let this stop you from trying the dressing on other dishes. Because it is so much more dynamic than you think!
Other Popular Japanese Salad Dressings:
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Japanese Sesame Dressing
Ingredients
- 3 Tbsp toasted white sesame seeds
- 2 Tbsp Japanese Kewpie mayonnaise
- 2 Tbsp rice vinegar (unseasoned)
- 1 ½ Tbsp soy sauce
- 1 tsp sugar
- ½ tsp mirin
- ½ tsp toasted sesame oil
Instructions
- Put sesame seeds in a frying pan and toast them on low heat. When 2-3 sesame seeds start popping, remove from the heat.
- Grind the toasted sesame seeds with a mortar and pestle until smooth.
- Combine all the ingredients in a bowl and whisk everything together.
- Drizzle on top of a simple salad of iceberg lettuce topped with tomatoes, boiled eggs, wakame, and corn.
To Store
- You can keep the dressing in an airtight container and store in the refrigerator for up to a week.
Nutrition
Update: Photos updated in November 2013
Just love this recipe! Simple and easy to prepare. Delicious in combination with crab salade.
Hi Vivian! I’m so happy to hear you like this recipe! Thank you so much for your kind feedback! 🙂
Hi! Is there any replacement for “rice vinegar”?
Thank you!
Hi Jimena! Rice vinegar is less strong (more mild) compared to other types of vinegar. If you have to use other vinegar, use less. I would still recommend you to buy rice vinegar because you really don’t want to use a western vinegar that has strong vinegar taste. And you can use rice vinegar for Asian foods that require vinegar but not strong western kind. 🙂
Thank you Nami! I’ll tey to get it!!!
Rgds,
Jimena
Thank you for your precious recipe. We’re looking forward to making this and enjoying it tonight.
Hi Evon! I hope you liked the recipe! Thanks for checking out. 🙂
Thank you for these sesame sauces. I had been looking for a good recipe for a long time now and none of the ones I tried had that special taste I get only in Japanese restaurants. These ones are by far the best ones (one for salad and the other for spinach and green beans and the other with the addition of seaweed for cucumber).
Thank you Namiko
from Nadia
Hi Nadia! I’m so happy to hear that! Thank you for your kind feedback! 🙂
Hi Nami, just tried this and its fantastic! Thanks for your never failed recipes, as always : )
Hi Carol! I’m so happy to hear you liked this recipe! Thanks so much for your feedback!
I tried this one after your carrot-dressing recipe, and both are excellent. I didn’t have time to toast the sesame, but it was very good anyway: tangy and creamy. Thank you!
Thank you Susi! Toasting just brings more fragrance and adds flavor, but it’s only optional. 🙂 I’m glad you liked this recipe! Thank you!
I have just discovered sesame dressing and am addicted!
Definitely going to try your recipe…a question, can the recipe be increased to make more that can be kept in the fridge? How long would it keep?
Many thanks.
Hi Fiona! Oh I’m so glad you discovered sesame dressing! You’ll enjoy this, and a lot cheaper than buying a store-bought sesame dressing (less sugar, and over all healthier). You can keep it for up to a week in the fridge. Hope you enjoy it!
I searched for a good Goma Dressing recipe for a while. We have many Asian shops around, but the dressing is so expensive for such a little bottle. This recipe is super easy and tastes great. I even made it for my Japanese friends. Now they use this recipe. I use an electric grinder in place of hand grinding when I am in a hurry.
Hi Beth! I’m so happy to hear you like this recipe. Yeah it’s true, the goma dressing usually costs $4-6 here, but homemade one costs so little and we can change the portion a little bit so we don’t get tired of the same flavor too. Thank you so much for your feedback!
Hi,
the soy sauce you use is Usukuchi shoyu or Koikuchi shoyu? I use chinese light soy sauce, i feel the dressing salty rather than sourish. I would like to try again, but i will buy the Japanese soy sauce. The soy sauce in your recipes is using which type? Thanks.
Hi Bee! Please use Japanese soy sauce for this recipe as Chinese soy sauce tastes different from Japanese one. I use Koikuchi shoyu for all my recipes unless I mention Usukuchi. Hope you will like this dressing! 🙂
great recipe followed it exactly and it was amazing! probably would use a blender next time as mortar and pestle made the sesame seeds a bit too paste like but may not have toasted them enough. delicious either way!
Hi Felicity! Thank you!! So glad to hear you enjoyed this recipe. Yeah blender or FP is a great idea! Thanks so much for your feedback. 🙂
Thank you so much! I just made it and it’s pretty much perfect. I kept wanting to buy it, but it’s awfully expensive at asian markets, and I thought I’d be able to make it if I just got the ingredients right. You’re awesome!
Hi Krista! Thank you for your feedback! Yeah once we know how to make it (easily), there is no need to buy a store-bought, especially it has some additives etc. I’m happy to hear you enjoyed it. Thank you so much for taking your time to write your feedback! 🙂
Tried your sesame salad dressing recipe and love it! Very easy to make & taste fantastic!Thank you.
Hi Jenny! I’m so glad to hear you enjoyed this recipe! Thank you so much for letting me know! 🙂
Tried this dressing yesterday. My hubby and I both fans of the wafu salad dressing. Now we can add this to our fav list =)
Thanks Nami-san for the wonderful recipes.
Thank you for trying this recipe! I’m happy you two enjoyed this dressing and thank you for writing your feedback! 🙂
I made some hummus last week and had some homemade tahini left in the refrigerator. I was trying to figure out what to do with this left-over when I saw your recipe for sesame dressing. I made this for dinner tonight and drizzled it over a big bowlful of vegetable salad and it was awesome! Thank you very much.
Hello John! I’m so happy you enjoyed this dressing! Your homemade hummus must be delicious too. Thank you so much or taking your time to give me your feedback. 🙂
Hi Nami, I am a new Mom learning to cook. I saw yr sesame dressing recipe. Looks interesting and very do-able. May I know how long can the dressing be stored in the fridge section? Appreciate your advice. Thanks.
Hi Jenn! Thank you for asking. I usually try to use it in less than a week. I keep the dressing in an air-tight jar and store in fridge. Probably 7-10 days should be okay. Please check the dressing’s condition before you eat it. 🙂