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Simple and delicious homemade Japanese Salad Dressing (known as Wafu Dressing)! Made with soy sauce, rice vinegar, roasted sesame seeds, and grated onion, this versatile salad dressing goes well with any salad combo you can think of.
Today I’m sharing another recipe requested by a reader and it is Wafu Dressing. Wafu (和風) means Japanese-style. You might have a similar Japanese food term that starts with “wa” and that is Wagyu (和牛), which means Japanese beef. In Japanese, “wa” (和) means Japanese-style. Washoku (和食) means a Japanese meal and Wagashi (和菓子) means a Japanese snack.
Wafu Dressing – Japanese-style Salad Dressing
Generally, Wafu Dressing (和風ドレッシング) refers to a salad dressing that consists of vegetable oil, rice vinegar, and soy sauce. Every household has a slightly different recipe for it and this is my version with grated onion to make it extra flavorful.
On a side note, if you replace a part of the vegetable oil with sesame oil, we call it Chuka Dressing (中華ドレッシング), meaning Chinese-style dressing in the Japanese culinary world. I thought it’s kind of interesting that the Japanese created a “Chinese-style dressing” since Mr. JOC (he’s a Taiwanese American) told me that salad exists in the Chinese food culture but it’s not very common to eat raw salad. If you’re interested in Chuka Dressing, please click here.
There are so many kinds of Wafu Dressing choices available in Japanese supermarkets, but homemade dressing has no MSG and preservatives and the best part is you can adjust the flavor as you wish. The ingredients and condiments are very typical for Japanese cooking so I hope you will give this a try today!
Interesting in More Homemade Salad Dressings?
Japanese Ingredient Substitution: If you want to look for substitutes for Japanese condiments and ingredients, click here.
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Simple and delicious homemade Wafu Dressing, soy sauce base with rice vinegar, roasted sesame seeds, and grated onion to make it extra flavorful.
- 1 Tbsp onion (grated, with juice)
- 3 Tbsp neutral-flavored oil (vegetable, canola, etc)
- 3 Tbsp soy sauce
- 3 Tbsp rice vinegar
- 1 Tbsp sugar
- freshly ground black pepper
- ½ Tbsp toasted white sesame seeds
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Combine all the ingredients in a bowl or mason jar and whisk everything together. Drizzle on top of a simple salad. Here I prepared hand-torn iceberg lettuce topped with tomatoes, boiled egg, wakame, cucumber, and red radish.
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The dressing can be kept in the refrigerator for 7-10 days.
Recipe by Namiko Chen of Just One Cookbook. All images and content on this site are copyright protected. Please do not use my images without my permission. If you’d like to share this recipe on your site, please re-write the recipe in your own words and link to this post as the original source. Thank you.
Update: The post was originally published on October 14, 2011. The photos are updated in November 2013.
Hi, I just came across this salad dressing from google search, and I tried making it right away. It tasted awesome! I will never again turn to those commercial ready salad dressing. Thanks very much for sharing this recipe 🙂
Oh and, I think I’m not meant to, but I added some grated leftover daikon to the mix, it’s so yummmm…..
I’m so glad you enjoyed this recipe! Thank you so much for finding my blog and giving this recipe a try. Grated daikon sounds wonderful! 🙂
Hi Nami…My friend and I tried this recipe last week. We changed vegetable oil with olive oil and rice vinegar with apple cider vinegar. My friend said it taste okay first after she combined all except onion, although the taste was different with she had tasted in japanese restaurant before. But after we put onion in, it tasted bitter. Why my onion taste bitter? My friend said maybe the onion not ripe yet, but i am not so sure.
Thank you.
ps:
Because today is the last day of the year, I wish you will have a good new year ( よいお年をお迎えください).
Hi Nonik!
Most Japanese dressing uses no fragrance light oil and olive oil might be too heavy. Also apple cider is a bit too strong for this type of dressing. I think the right kind of oil and vinegar is very important for Japanese style dressing.
As for the onion, you can soak in cold water to remove the bitterness (for maybe 10 minutes), then squeeze the water out to add into the dressing if bitterness is too strong. Each onion is different so it’s hard to say, but if you enjoy the onion in general, it definitely adds nice texture and flavor to the dressing.
Hope this helps. 🙂
どうもありがとう！明けましておめでとうございます！ 🙂
Hello Nami,
Thanks for the salad dressing recipe. Can I sub light olive oil for canola oil? Also if it’s a must, can I use agave nectar instead of sugar?
Tq!
Hi Nic! Yes you can substitute with olive oil and agave nectar if you like. Olive oil has stronger taste than vegetable/canola oil, so please adjust according to your liking. 🙂 Enjoy!
I finally made the wafu dressing last night, I tried this morning it was sooo good.
The only one thing really brothers me is hard to make grated onion juice.
This recipe saves a lot of my money.
I spent $7 CA dollar on one small bottle of wafu dressing.
Now, I can make as much as I want, and it costs me so little.
Hi Charri! I’m really happy to hear you liked it! Regarding onion juice, it depends on how much water is inside the onion and what kind of grater you use. Do your best. You could just omit it too, but I like the texture the grated onion create in the dressing. Hope this helps. 🙂
Thank you so much for sharing this, it’s delicious and my four year old son, who refuses go eat salad, had FOUR helpings of salad with this dressing.
Hi Linda! I’m so happy to hear your 4-year old son liked this! My kids love this dressing too. And it’s great as it’s homemade and we can make it anytime. Thank you very much for your feedback. xo 🙂
This is so fantastic. Did not have vegetable oil so used peanut and it was still so yummy. I have been eating salads like a rabbit since discovering this dressing. Cannot wait to try your other dishes
Hi Maria! HAHAHAH “like a rabbit”!!! But I understand what you mean. When I like dressing, I feel like I can eat tons of salad too. Hope you enjoy other recipes from my blog. 🙂 Thank you so much for your feedback!
Sorry such a latecomer here. This salad looks wonderful. I’m about to attempt to reproduce it this afternoon for lunch. With all the ingredients you mentioned to put in the salad, it sounds very very hearty and will satiate til dinner without having to snack on stuff. However, I am not familiar with the Wakame Brown Seaweed and what it looks like while purchasing it at my local Asian market. Is it in the cold section? Is it wet or is it dry? Please help. Thanks.
Hi Kazy! Oh please don’t feel sorry at all, and I’m so glad you are here! 🙂 It’s in dry food section, in a package like this.
https://www.justonecookbook.com/pantry/wakame-dried-seaweed/
If you are shopping in a Japanese / Asian supermarket, it’s near nori seaweed, rice seasoning, all the dried food ingredient area.
Hope this helps and enjoy the recipe! 🙂
I’m so happy I found your blog:-)! I’ve been making this salad dressing w/addition of a little sesame oil. The salad (greens & toppings) are julienned & placed over somen noodles. Its refreshing when the temperature outside is just unbearable. Toppings I use are: kamaboku, plain egg omelet, carrots, negi.
You have made all of my favorite foods-hijiki,agedashi tofu,(although I can eat tofu as is), kimpira& nimono just to mention a few.
BT W, do you make your own dashi or is it OK to use pre-pkg dashi no moto ?
Hi Helene! I’m glad you found my blog, and thank you for your comments! It seems like you like oso-zai dishes. I’m glad you like those traditional Japanese dishes. 🙂
I make my own dashi once in a while depending on dishes I make. I usually use Dashi Packet method and don’t use dashi no moto. Dashi packet can be hard, but it’s much easier to find dashi no moto.
https://www.justonecookbook.com/how-to/how-to-make-dashi-jiru/
Thank you for sharing this, I’ve made it and cannot get enough of it. It is so delicious and ridiculously simple
Hi Maria! So happy to hear you enjoyed this dressing! It’s one of my favorite too – very simple and delicious! Glad you liked it too. 🙂 Thank you for writing!
I have a stupid question…about the grated onion juice, I should using raw onion or cooked onion?
Can I use it as a dip sauce with Grilled vegetable beef roll?
Hi Carol! It’s a raw onion. It gives nice texture to the dressing instead of just a liquid mixture. If you don’t like onion, you can omit it. If you don’t have extra step, you can also soak grated onion in water (over sieve so it’s easier to drain) to get rid of bitterness. For me, that tiny bitterness adds another dimension to the dressing. My kids don’t seem to notice the onion taste. Try both ways! Sure you can use it as a dip sauce (you can even heat up). I’d include onion if you use for meat dish. It gives very refreshing flavor. Hope you enjoy! 🙂
I like to add finely minced green onion!
I keep trying to remember all the things my mother cooked. Some of your posts help me to remember. Thanks!!
Hi Chieko! I’m happy to hear that. Thanks so much for reading my blog! 🙂
Hello Namiko Chen,
I had an excess of overly salty fermented onions so I was looking for a good onion dressing recipe to use them. A slightly edited version of yours was perfect. Several other recipes of yours have been very helpful as well. Thank you for the wonderful work you do.
Hello Julian! Salty fermented onions! I’ve never tried that before and I’m curious to try! I’m glad to hear you enjoy my recipes. Thank you for your kind feedback! 🙂
Could another kind of oil be used? Such has canola or grape seed?
Hi Selina! Sure, canola oil is good! 🙂
美味しそう！ I love your blog ❤️
Thank you Victoria!
Holy moly! That was not only pretty simple but most delicious. I hope you will make videos for all of your recipes. Also please consider a function on your blog pages where I can click a button to be brought right to the recipe. And maybe a function that will allow me to see the recipe directions without photos. Maybe it’s my old, slow PC and old printer that make these qualities desired. My PC takes forever to scroll down pages and for some reason my printer won’t print the recipes out when I hit print so I have to copy-paste the recipes and remove the pictures so the recipes will fit on a page or two. Usually I keep a video playlist list of my favorite Japanese recipes but sometimes you don’t make videos for all the recipes here yet. Thank you for teaching me how to cook! <3
Hi Lily! I’m glad to hear you enjoyed this recipe, and thanks so much for your kind feedback.
I do have shortcut for you. Right under the recipe title, do you see “Print Recipe” and “Jump to Recipe” pink buttons? That will be your shortcut. Hope they are helpful. 🙂 Also, you can print the recipe from clicking the “Print” button inside the recipe. 🙂
Oh I didn’t even notice the “Jump to Recipe” button on your pages! Now I see it! Wonderful! Yeah I saw the print button but when I go to print it doesn’t print. Maybe it’s my old PC and old printer (in Firefox) that has problems. I can print if I copy-paste to word and then print though. Thank you so much!
No worries! 🙂 Sorry you have issue with print out. 🙁 Should be easy to print…
YUM! This is so delicious and simple. My favorite salad dressing now.
If you have a chance to try it with avocado oil, you will not regret it!
Hi Lion! I’m so happy to hear that you liked this recipe! I do have avocado oil – I’ll definitely use it for this recipe! 🙂
Greetings Nami, How long can this dressing be stored in fridge for future use? TQ!
Hi Polly! I would use it within a week. 🙂
Sugoi! So easy, tasty and versatile – would go with most salad ingredients (we actually used leftover to flavour our home made popcorn :)- yum!!!)
Hi Robyn! Arigato! I’m glad you liked it and thanks for your kind feedback too! Wow, you drizzled on homemade popcorn?! That’s something new. I’ll definitely try it next time!
Soooo delicious! I love that it takes only a handful of ingredients to make. I used it over salad for a couple of nights and the family LOVED it so much. One night we had broiled salmon and I love to eat it cold as leftovers with steamed rice. This time I cut up cucumbers and added the salmon and poured wafu dressing over it alongside a bowl of rice and my gosh it’s amazing!! I’m having the rest of the dressing right now with what I described above. I drink every last drop!!!
Thank you for the wonderful recipe!
Hoping you and your family are protected & staying healthy during these trying times.
Much love from Idaho.
Hi Gina! Hahaha! I love that you enjoyed this dressing till the last drop! 😀 Thank you so much for your kind feedback. It made me so happy! I hope you and your family stay safe and healthy, too. It seems like you eat healthy and well. It’s very important at this difficult time… Take good care! 🙂
Very simple but very tasty! The toasted sesame seeds give it an extra hint of nutty flavor. I’ll have to make a bigger batch next time because I don’t think this will last more than a day or two!
Hi Bryce! Thank you so much for trying this recipe! I’m so happy you enjoyed it. 🙂
This is one of my absolute favorite salad dressings! A lovely combination of richness from the sesame with sour, sweet, and salty. I also recently used some leftover dressing as a sauce for lettuce wraps with chicken, and it was delicious there too! Thanks for the wonderful recipe!
Hi Cameron! I do use this recipe often for my weekly salads too! It’s pretty basic that goes with Japanese food! 🙂
This is sooo good! Definitely worth the watering eyes while grating the onion. My local Japanese restaurant serves this salad as a complimentary starter, but I never knew what it was called. I knew it had onion in the dressing and have searched for years to find a recipe to make it at home. I’m so glad I found this recipe – now I can have it whenever I want 😁 Thank you!!!
Hi Jo! I’m so glad to hear you liked this recipe. Thank you for your kind feedback, Jo!
Great recipe Nami! I love all your recipes. I substituted some Yuzu Ponzu for part of the soy sauce as I had it on hand and wanted a little citrus hit. So easy and tasty.
Hi Ann! That sounds really good! Thank you for trying my recipe and for your kind feedback!
I’ve made this dressing multiple times – I absolutely love it! The recipe makes quite a lot (we use it on a side salad for 2 people), so I divide it into 3 small plastic containers and freeze 2 of them to enjoy later 😁👏 don’t want to waste a drop it’s so good!
Hi Jo! I’m super happy to hear you like this recipe! Thank you so much for your kind feedback. 🙂 xo
Made it many times. So yum.
Hi Bia!
Yay! Thank you very much for trying this recipe many times and for your kind feedback!☺️