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?
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Wafu Dressing (Japanese Salad Dressing)
Ingredients
- 1 Tbsp grated onion (this is my favorite grater to grate onion, daikon, ginger, etc)
- 3 Tbsp neutral oil
- 3 Tbsp soy sauce
- 3 Tbsp rice vinegar (unseasoned)
- 1 Tbsp sugar
- freshly ground black pepper
- 1 tsp toasted white sesame seeds
Instructions
- 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.
To Store
- Keep the dressing in an airtight container and store in the refrigerator for 7-10 days.
Nutrition
Update: The post was originally published on October 14, 2011. The photos are updated in November 2013.
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! 🙂
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!
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Greetings Nami, How long can this dressing be stored in fridge for future use? TQ!
Hi Polly! I would use it within a week. 🙂
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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! 🙂