Zesty Thai Salad dressing

Happy Friday Fellow Foodies!

Have you ever ordered an "Asian Salad" with some sort of spicy soy-based dressing? A lot of people love this style of salad, and so do I. The trouble is that the commercially-made Asian style dressings are so loaded with artificial thickeners and chemicals you DO NOT want to put in your body, that most people simple give up making this healthy salad at home and order it out. I had this thought yesterday as I was whipping up  my Spicy Thai style dressing last evening for dinner.

If you are on a low sodium diet, this may not be the recipe for you, as it contains fish sauce and soy sauce. If you are healthy and can tolerate a little salt bump now and again-by all means give this EASY-BREEZY-LEMON-SQUEEZY recipe a go!!! Not only does it make your salad SING with flavor, but you can use it as a poultry/pork/seafood/beef marinade!

Please don't email me and say that you cannot find fish sauce. As far as I can tell it has become common enough that most big chain groceries carry the stuff in their Asian foods section. If you cannot find it then you may have to brave the local Asian Market, or simply get it mail-ordered from an online source such as: http://www.asianfoodgrocer.com/ or http://www.efooddepot.com/ethnics/asian.html


Here is the recipe!

Asian Dressing for Salads and Marinades
1/4 cup sesame oil
2 Tbs. sesame seeds
2 Tbs. chili garlic sauce
2Tbs. light brown sugar
1/4 cup lime juice
2Tbs. soy sauce
1Tbs. fish sauce
1 tsp. grated ginger
 Heat your sesame oil in a very small sauté pan. Add the sesame seeds and cook over medium heat until they are brown and smell toasty. Pour into a nonreactive bowl, and add remaining ingredients. Whisk to combine and toss into your favorite salad mix. Mine is:

Romaine lettuce
Napa cabbage
Shredded carrots
Cucumber slices
Chopped Celery
Cilantro leaves
Green onion or chives
Broccoli florets
chopped grilled chicken and/or grilled shrimp
Crunchy chop suey noodles