I love me some salad and I really love me some salad full of random toppings. I like to keep a couple of salad dressings in the fridge that have mild yet interesting flavors to complement whatever I throw into the salad bowl. This is my recipe for a miso salad dressing that has a mild asian flavor.
Surprisingly, the flavor is delicate enough that it also pairs nicely with non-asian flavors. This is a spinach salad with avocado, cranberries, yellow carrots, and feta onto which I put this dressing. And it was quite tasty. Seriously!
Mild Miso Salad Dressing
3 Tbs Mirin (Japanese rice wine)
3 Tbs Olive oil
1/4 C Rice vinegar
1Tbs Brown sugar
1/4 C Water
2 Tbs Soy Sauce
1 Tbs Honey
1 Tbs Miso
1 tsp Salt
1 tsp Ginger paste
Gather all of your ingredients. Pre-crushed ginger is convenient, but you can use freshly grated ginger, or a large pinch of dried ginger. If you can’t find mirin, you can substitute extra rice vinegar with an extra pinch of sugar, the dressing will just be a bit tangier. For soy sauce, you can use standard shoyu or tamari, reduced sodium, or gluten free without changing the taste much. There are many different kinds of miso pastes available. Have fun trying and comparing different ones. I typically use a mild yellow paste for this dressing but using a red will amp up the flavor.
Combine all of the ingredients into a jar and whisk together.
This recipe makes for a runny dressing. If you like thicker dressings, decrease the amount of water and increase the amount of oil.
