This spicy and sour Thai salad dressing is bursting with the flavors of Southeast Asia! It’s versatile, healthy and can be whipped up in just 15 minutes. Keep this in your fridge and say goodbye to those unhealthy meals!
THAI SALAD DRESSING AND ITS INGREDIENTS
Yum — I guess most of us know what this word means in English, but do you know what it means in Thai?
It means salad or to mix.
In the Thai cuisine, we have so many salads or yums, but there is only one kind of dressing that we use for almost all of them. What’s even more intriguing is that this basic dressing really does go well with all the Thai salads it’s used with. Check out my sweet leaf salad, lotus shoot salad, low-fat corn salad and ramen noodle salad and you’ll notice that the dressings use pretty much the same set of ingredients! It’s just a matter of how much you need or how sour or spicy you want it to be.
Made with garlic, chilies, lime juice, fish sauce, and sugar, this salad dressing is bursting with the flavors of Southeast Asia. Whether it’s meat, seafood, noodles, fruits or vegetables, this dressing just never disappoints.
A HEALTHY CHOICE – FAT FREE AND LOW SUGAR
Although this spicy and sour salad dressing contains some sugar, I would say it’s still healthy. After all, it’s a fat free Thai salad dressing (not that fat is bad, but you’ll probably already get enough of that from something else) and it’s also low-sugar. Like mentioned before, you can modify the recipe to suit your preferences. This recipe I’m giving you doesn’t use a lot of sugar, but even then you can use a smaller amount than suggested. If you don’t consume refined sugar, you can definitely use other types of sugar such as palm or coconut sugar. I actually like this dressing more with palm sugar but it’s a little harder to dissolve, and I don’t always have it in my kitchen.
PRO TIP
Like most Thai dishes, when making this, you just have to keep tasting as you go. The amount of lime juice, fish sauce and sugar suggested are already pretty well balanced and provides a delicious taste already. But if you don’t have a high tolerance to spicy food, start with just a few chilies. You can start small, taste the dressing and see if you’d like to add more of anything. We like it spicy and sour and that’s how it’s made traditionally. But you can, of course, have it however spicy, sour, salty or sweet you want it to be.
HOW TO MAKE THAI SALAD DRESSING
1. In a mortar, pound 4 cloves of peeled garlic and as many chilies as you want with a pestle until fine.
2. Add 1 ½ tablespoons of fish sauce, 3 tablespoons of lime juice, and1 ½ tablespoons of granulated sugar to the garlic and chili mixture.
3. Dissolve the sugar by stirring with a spoon. The dressing is ready when the sugar is fully dissolved.
VEGAN OPTION
While this Thai hot and sour salad dressing is made with fish sauce traditionally, you can use salt or soy sauce instead if you’re a vegetarian or vegan. Just keep in mind that if you’re using salt, don’t use the fish sauce measurement and go easy on the amount of salt when you begin. Also, it’s very likely that you will need more lime juice in order to for you to have enough liquid for your salad, and more sugar to round out the flavor.
STORING
As you can use this flavorful dressing with many types of salad, you can make it in an amount that will last you a few days. Note that 2-3 days in an airtight container in the refrigerator is the longest you will want to keep this dressing because it contains fresh lime juice. If you store it for longer than that, you’ll start to notice an unpleasant smell of the lime juice.
OTHER POSTS YOU MAY ENJOY:
Thai Salad Dressing Recipe
Ingredients
- 4 cloves garlic peeled
- Thai chilies to taste (I use about 35!)
- 1 ½ tablespoons fish sauce
- 3 tablespoons lime juice
- 1 ½ tablespoons granulated sugar
Instructions
- In a mortar, pound the garlic and chilies with a pestle until fine.
- Add the fish sauce, lime juice, and granulated sugar to the garlic and chili mixture.
- Dissolve the sugar by stirring with a spoon. The dressing is ready when the sugar is fully dissolved.
Notes
- As you can use this flavorful dressing with many types of salad, you can make it in an amount that will last you a few days. Note that 2-3 days in an airtight container in the refrigerator is the longest you will want to keep this dressing because it contains fresh lime juice. If you store it for longer than that, you'll start to notice an unpleasant smell from the lime juice.
- While this Thai hot and sour salad dressing is made with fish sauce traditionally, you can use salt or soy sauce instead if you're a vegetarian or vegan. Just keep in mind that if you're using salt, don't use the fish sauce measurement and go easy on the amount of salt when you begin. Also, it's very likely that you will need more lime juice in order to for you to have enough liquid for your salad, and more sugar to round out the flavor.