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Thai Salad Dressing

September 4, 2024

Peanut butter makes a creamy base for this deeply flavorful Thai salad dressing. With tangy lime juice, fish sauce and a pinch of brown sugar, this Asian vinaigrette will please every palate.

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spoon in a glass jar with thai salad dressing

The Best, Simple Creamy Thai Salad Dressing that’s Ready in Minutes.

Make that ready in seconds, especially if you mix this creamy Thai salad dressing in a blender! With both lime juice and white vinegar, this peanutty Thai dressing can be used almost anywhere you’d use a regular, classic vinaigrette but want to add a little Asian-influence. Mix up a batch, pop it in the fridge, and liven up your meals for at least a few days! We love to drizzle this savory-sweet, Thai salad dressing over a simple green salad, or toss it with noodles and julienned peppers for a delicious cold Thai noodle salad.

small bowls with ingredients for Thai salad dressing

A Few Ingredients

A lot of Thai salad dressing recipes call for ginger or garlic, but we’ve opted to keep this Asian salad dressing recipe simple simple simple. The only work your knife will do is to slice a lime or two in half, and with no chunky pieces to blend, you can put this dressing together without even dirtying your blender or food processor. Our Thai salad dressing recipe is made up of:

  • Tamari. Or, it’s also OK to use soy sauce or coconut aminos!
  • Peanut butter. Natural, creamy. Look for one with an ingredient list of just peanuts, or peanuts and salt. No sugar or palm oil, please!
  • Fish sauce. More on that in a sec.
  • Light olive oil, or other neutral-tasting oil. Something that gives the dressing viscosity, without altering the flavor.
  • Fresh lime juice. For a quarter cup, you’ll need 2-3 small limes.
  • White vinegar. Oh yes, this is a tangy Thai dressing!
  • Brown sugar. Optional, but awesome.

Thai Dressing Ingredient Spotlight: What the Heck is Fish Sauce, Anyway?

Don’t fear the fish sauce! It may be a new-to-you ingredient, but it’ll quickly become a favorite. Fish sauce is a key ingredient in Thai cuisine and if you have in a Thai restaurant, chances are you’ve eaten fish sauce (hello, Pad Thai!). Made from salted, fermented fish, fish sauce may not sound like the most appetizing thing ever. But, just a drop or two delivers a super umami burst of flavor and can really transform dishes and dressings (like this Thai salad dressing). It might just be the ultimate “under-promise, over-deliver”-er of the condiment world. There are tons of brands to choose from, especially if you make a trip to your local Asian grocery store, but we are partial to this one.

White bowl filled with Thai Salad Dressing ingredients unmixed.
White bowl filled with Thai Salad Dressing ingredients mixed with a wire whisk

A Quick Whisk.

Thai peanut dressing is as easy as 1, 2...well, actually that’s it. Just two steps to peanut salad dressing perfection!

  1. Gather and measure your ingredients.
  2. Make the Thai dressing by whisking everything together in a bowl until a lovely, creamy emulsion is formed. Or you can mix it in a blender, or a food processor, or even using an immersion blender. Using an electric kitchen tool is faster, but whisking makes (in our opinion) less-annoying dishes.
Glass jar with Thai salad dressing along with crushed peanuts and sliced limes

Thai Peanut Salad Dressing—a Gateway Dressing.

Now that you’re all jazzed about making salad dressing at home, here are a few other super tasty salad dressing recipes to try:

Tools You’ll Need:

As you might imagine, this Thai dressing recipe doesn’t require much in the way of tools. You can make it with:

Have Thai Peanut Dressing, Will Travel.

Or at least will post on instagram. Whether you’re whipping up this Thai salad dressing recipe for an Asian-inspired salad just for the fam, or as part of a more celebratory meal, snap a photo of how you serve it, and maybe even a video of the beautiful people you feed it to. Tag us on Instagram using @themodernproper and #themodernproper. Happy eating!

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Thai Salad Dressing

  • Serves:  8
  • Prep Time:  5 min
  • Cook Time:  0 min
  • Calories:  154

Ingredients

  • 1 tablespoon low sodium soy sauce, tamari or coconut aminos
  • ¼ cup creamy peanut butter
  • 1 tablespoon fish sauce
  • ½ cup neutral oil, we like extra light tasting olive oil
  • 2 tablespoons lime juice, from 2 limes
  • 2 tablespoons white vinegar
  • 1 tablespoon honey
  • 1 tablespoon brown sugar, optional

Method

  1. In a small bowl, whisk together the soy sauce, peanut butter, fish sauce, oil, lime juice, vinegar, honey and sugar until emulsified.

  2. Store for up to one week refrigerated in an airtight container.

Nutrition Info

  • Per Serving
  • Amount
  • Calories 154
  • Protein 1 g
  • Carbohydrates 3 g
  • Total Fat 16 g
  • Dietary Fiber 0 g
  • Cholesterol 0 mg
  • sodium 163 mg
  • Total Sugars 2 g

Thai Salad Dressing

Questions & Reviews

Join the discussion below.

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  • eileen

    Any way to cut down on the oil amount ? Thanks

    Not in this recipe, sorry Eileen.

  • JS

    Do you use distilled white vinegar or white wine vinegar?

    We use distilled white vinegar.

  • Patty

    What kind of peanut butter do you recommend?

    Honestly any peanut butter will work! whatever your favorite brand is.

  • Lauri

    Hi can you suggest a sub for fish sauce to make this vegan?
    Thanks!

    You should be ok to just leave it out. Soy sauce or coconut aminos can usually be subbed for fish sauce but since there is already soy sauce in this recipe you wouldn't want to go that route.

  • Kelsey

    I just made this (for the first time, so just a vague idea what it should taste like) and I doubled it to have extra in the fridge, and the lime was super overpowering! I played around adding more of all the other things but then it turned much thicker then it probably should be. I should have made one batch to start lol! Any recommendations for doubling in the future so I don't accidentally turn it into more of a sauce than a dressing? Thanks!

    I guess if you are doubling it just start with the 1/4 cup lime juice. Then taste it and add more lime if necessary or not if you don't think it needs it.

  • Emma

    Amazing dressing, easy to make and so delicious

    Thanks Emma, glad you loved it!

  • Maureen

    I’ve made this several times now and everyone loves it, some saying they could drink it all up! I usually make ½ again as much as most in my family like lots of sauce on their noodles. I have used cashew butter instead of peanut butter due to a peanut allergy and it was equally delicious. Also, I cut the vinegar amount back up a bit (personal preference).

    Thanks maureen, glad you enjoyed it!

  • Amanda

    Just tried this out tonight. Absolutely delicious. Will definitely be making this more often.

    Thanks so much Amanda, we are so glad you loved this one!

  • Jenn

    This salad dressing is so delicious, I make it every few weeks!

    That's so great! Thank you Jenn!