This Asian Sesame Dressing is one of my all time most-used salad dressings, because it keeps for weeks and it’s so easy to make – just soy sauce, sesame oil, olive oil, vinegar and sugar.
Use this Asian dressing for leafy green salads, Asian slaws, noodle salads and chopped salads. It’s also a terrific dressing to make steamed vegetables so much tastier. Finish with a sprinkle of fresh sesame seeds and sliced greens onions!
Instant Asian Sesame Dressing
This Asian Sesame Dressing is one of eight ready-to-use salad dressing recipes that I shared in this post: Ready To Use Salad Dressings. I’ve been wanting to share a bunch of long shelf life salad dressings for ages and was so glad to finally have an excuse to!
This Asian Sesame Dressing is fantastic. It was originally off the back of a packet that I’ve adapted slightly to my taste. The reason it’s one of my most used dressings is because it literally takes 30 seconds to make – grab a few bottles, eye ball the measurements, shake and you’re done.
No need to mince garlic, grate ginger of chop fresh herbs. This Sesame Dressing is simple and it’s perfect just as it is. However, you can of course doll it up as you wish! It’s a fantastic base recipe. 🙂
I literally use this dressing for all things Asian and Asian-esque. But one of my favourite ways to use this dressing is with shredded cabbage and carrots. So an Asian slaw, if you will. 🙂 Especially if you grab a bag of pre shredded cabbage, as I did for these photos (I used a Crunchy Slaw pre cut mix from David Jones, I ❤️the DJ’s Food Hall!!).
The other thing I use it for is sashimi salads. Leafy greens, cherry tomatoes and some store bought fresh sashimi, topped with crunchy fried shallots and this dressing. It’s a 1 minute dinner assembly!
Because this Asian Sesame Dressing doesn’t use any fresh ingredients that go off, it has a very long shelf life. I keep it for 3 weeks. I like to keep it in the fridge, just to be safe (and also because I keep my soy sauce refrigerated, and this has soy sauce in it).
SUCH a fantastic standby dressing! Nagi xx
PS Pictured below is an Asian Slaw made using the David Jones Crunchy Slaw mix (green and red cabbage, carrots), a sprinkle of store bought fried shallots, tossed with this Asian Sesame Dressing.
PPS In the recipe below, I’ve shared a big batch (1 cup) to make and keep, and single batch too (i.e. enough for one side salad for 3-4 people).
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Asian Sesame Dressing
Ingredients
Big batch to keep (makes 1 cup)
- 1/4 cup soy sauce
- 2 tbsp toasted sesame oil
- 1/4 cup white vinegar (adjust to taste for sharpness)
- 1/4 cup olive oil (Note 1)
- 1 tbsp sugar (any type) or 1 1/2 tbsp honey
Single serving batch
- 1 tbsp soy sauce
- 2 tsp toasted sesame oil
- 1 tbsp white vinegar
- 1 tbsp olive oil (Note 1)
- 1 tsp sugar (any type) or 1 1/2 tsp honey
Instructions
- Place ingredients in a jar and shake well until sugar is dissolved. Adjust saltiness with salt and sweetness with sugar to taste.
- Keep for up to 3 weeks, in the fridge (to be safe). Bring to room temp and shake well before use.
- Single serving batch is enough for 3 - 4 cups of shredded cabbage / leafy greens i.e. a side salad for 4 people.
- Big batch - my rule of thumb for how much dressing to use is generally 1 tbsp of dressing per 1 packed cup of shredded vegetables and 2 tsp per handful of leafy greens.
Recipe Notes:

Nutrition Information:
Don’t miss all the other Ready To Use Dressings I shared! These all last for 2+ weeks, most for 3 weeks.Find them all here.
Hi Nagi, when you use white vinegar is it just plain old white in the big containers from the supermarket? Is there a difference?
Very tasty and so few ingredients! Just made it and will put it over a kale, buckwheat noodle, carrot, cabbage salad. Will add some cherry tomatoes for color!