I started using tahini dressing in my roasted cauliflower salad until I discovered that adding miso to tahini was a game-changer.
Why Adding Miso?
Miso paste has an umami flavor, a meat-like flavor that gives a savory, salty touch to dressing sauce recipes. Plus, miso has many health benefits, such as improving digestion. As it’s made from fermented soybeans, it contains many probiotics. But it’s also high in many vitamins and minerals that support bone health, like zinc, calcium, and manganese. So let’s see how you can make this tahini miso dressing to add flavors and a healthy touch to any salad and vegetables.
Ingredients and Substitutions
All you need to make a flavorsome miso tahini sauce are:
Hulled Tahini Paste – I don’t recommend unhulled tahini unless you love it. I find it slightly too bitter. White Miso Paste – This is the lighter miso paste available on the market. You can use brown miso, but it’s super strong and salty. It means you need to decrease the soy sauce or tamari sauce if used. Tamari Sauce or soy sauce Sesame Oil – this gives an amazing flavor to the dressing. Alternatively, you can use avocado oil. Lime Juice or lemon juice, bottled or freshly squeezed. Sake or more lime juice Mirin – Mirin is a rice wine that has very little alcohol content. Alternatively, you can use some rice vinegar. Fresh Ginger – Or powdered ginger. Crushed Garlic Cloves – for more flavor.
How To Make Miso Tahini Dressing
It’s very easy to make your dressing for salads. Plus, it lasts for weeks in a glass jar in the fridge which is very convenient for meal prep.
Tasting And Adjusting
Like any salad dressing, you can play with flavor, adding a more salty, tangy, or spicy flavor to the dressing. Fell free to add:
A pinch of red chili pepper or cayenne pepper for a spicy Asian salad dressing. More lime juice instead of water to thin out the sauce and increase the tangy flavor. A drizzle of maple syrup for a boost or sweetness.
Storage Instructions
Store the Miso Tahini Dressing in a sealed airtight glass mason jar in the fridge for up to 1 week. The dressing thickens in the fridge and that’s normal. To thin out, add a bit of water, close lid and shake to combine.
Serving
This miso dressing is delicious on top of your favorite salad like some listed below
Quinoa Spinach Salad Warm Roasted Cauliflower Salad
You can use this dressing to dip or drizzle on top of roasted vegetables, like:
Air-Fryer Sweet Potato Cubes Air-Fryer Sweet Potato Wedges Air-Fryer Potato Wedges
Finally, since the dressing has delicious Asian cuisine flavors, you will love drizzling this on top of my:
Oven-Baked Tofu Pan-Fried Tempeh – marinated in my Tempeh Marinade Recipe.
Allergy Swaps
If you need to replace ingredients for allergy reasons or availability issues, try some of the options below.
Citrus-Free – Replace the lime juice with apple cider vinegar. Alcohol-Free– Replace the sake with more vinegar or lime juice, and look for an alcohol-free tamari sauce. Swap the mirin for half maple syrup and half rice vinegar. Gluten-Free – All the ingredients are gluten-free, as long as you use tamari sauce or coconut aminos and not soy sauce that may contain wheat.
Find below my answers to your most common questions about this recipe.
More Vegan Asian-Inspired Recipes
Find below more vegan recipes inspired by Asian-cuisine.
