Sauces & Condiments Japanese

Maido Japanese Salad Dressing

Apple, neutral oil, rice vinegar, soy, garlic, mustard and white pepper blend into a Japanese-style salad dressing with enough sweet-sharp balance to make iceberg lettuce briefly feel relevant again.

Maido Japanese Salad Dressing

What It Is

Apple, neutral oil, rice vinegar, soy, garlic, mustard and white pepper blend into a Japanese-style salad dressing with enough sweet-sharp balance to make iceberg lettuce briefly feel relevant again.

Origin

Japanese restaurant-style ginger and fruit dressings have many variations. This apple-based version is a home adaptation rather than one fixed traditional recipe.

Fun Fact

Apple adds both sweetness and natural pectin, which helps give blended dressing a little body without introducing a chemistry set.

Prep
8 min
Cook
—
Total
8 min
Servings
12 tbsps
(a generous estimate, much like most cookbook authors)
Difficulty
easy
Dairy-Free Nut-Free
Diet
Vegetarian, Vegan, Dairy-Free, Nut-Free, Low-Carb
Away Mission
35 min walk
(about one moderately tense turbolift ride)
#japanese #maido-japanese-salad-dressing #sauce #spoon-and-scribble

Ingredients

  • 1 apple, peeled and chopped
  • ¾ cup safflower oil
  • ⅓ cup Japanese rice vinegar
  • ⅓ cup Japanese soy sauce
  • 1 small clove garlic
  • ½ tsp prepared mustard
  • ¼ tsp sea salt
  • ½ tsp white pepper

Steps

  1. Blend the apple and oil until smooth, then pour into a bowl.
  2. Blend the remaining ingredients separately.
  3. Return the apple mixture to the blender and blend everything together until smooth.

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Notes

Blend the apple in fully — it's doing real work sweetening and thickening this dressing, not just adding flavour on the side.

Nutrition Facts
Per 2 tbsp
Calories 150
Burning this off: roughly one intense session of Zamboni driving.
% Daily Value*
Fat 15.0 g 20%
Saturated + Trans 1 g 5%
Cholesterol 0 mg
Sodium 420 mg 18%
Carbohydrate 2.5 g
Fibre 0.0 g 0%
Sugars 1.5 g 2%
Protein 0.5 g
Potassium 40 mg 1%
Calcium 0 mg 0%
Iron 0.2 mg 1%
*5% or less is a little, 15% or more is a lot. Sodium levels calculated in a country with universal healthcare — and it's free, so don't worry about it too much.
A genuinely respectable nutrition profile. No red flags here — go ahead and feel a little smug about it.

Substitutions

Any neutral oil can replace safflower oil. Regular rice vinegar works whether or not it's labelled specifically Japanese. Regular soy sauce is fine here, the Japanese-labelled kind isn't doing anything special that a standard bottle won't.

Storage

Store in a sealed jar in the fridge for up to a week. Shake well before each use since it separates on standing.

Freezing

Freezing is usually unnecessary for a small batch of sauce. If you do freeze it, use small portions and expect creamy or emulsified sauces to need a good whisk after thawing.