I’m always on the lookout for great salads. I’m forever trying to discover new salad combos and dressings. Here’s my latest salad/slaw obsession.
This colorful salad was inspired by a recipe from Sarah of My New Roots blog. If you’re a fan of innovative raw food, greens, and vegetarian recipes, I think you’ll like the recipes on this blog. I haven’t made any of the other recipes yet, but I visit every so often to dream about the food.
Well I stopped dreaming this week and made the Roasted Sesame Winter Slaw along with the tahini-based dressing. The dressing was flavorful and tangy, but I was craving a different style of dressing for this salad, so I created this creamy, Asian-style dressing to go with it. This dressing also makes a great dip, as well as a marinade for grilling.
What makes this dressing so tasty is the aroma and flavor of toasted sesame oil and seeds. You can toast the sesame seeds in an oven, or in a frying pan, as I did. Either way works, I just prefer the pan because I can toss them around as they’re toasting to get them a bit more evenly toasted.
This could really be a salad or a slaw. If you’re finding this mix of greens on the rough side, let the salad soak in dressing as if you are making a slaw, and store it the refrigerator for about 20 minutes or more. I prefer to add the dressing and toasted sesame seeds right before I have the salad, and I’ll keep any leftover salad and dressing covered in the refrigerator for another day.
Rainbow Salad with Toasted Sesame Dressing
Salad ingredients (makes about 6 salad servings)
- 2 cups of shredded Savoy cabbage (Napa or other will also work)
- 2 cups of shredded purple cabbage
- 2 cups of shredded kale
- 2 cups of julienned, grated, or peeled carrots (I use this julienne tool)
- 2 scallions, finely diced
- 1 cup of chopped Italian parsley (flat leaf)
- 1/4 cup chopped mint
Dressing ingredients
- 1 1/4 cup of mayonnaise (I used sesame oil in this recipe)
- 1 tablespoon of gluten-free soy sauce (I use this brand)
- 1/3 cup of honey (or other sweetener)
- 3 to 4
teaspoonstablespoons of brown rice vinegar (or other vinegar) - 1 tablespoon of toasted sesame oil (or other kind of sesame oil)
- 2 tablespoons of toasted sesame seeds (half for the dressing and the other half to sprinkle over the salad)
Method
- Prepare all the salad ingredients and toss together in a large bowl.
- Toast the sesame seeds, either in a small frying pan on a medium heat for about 6 minutes, or in an oven or toaster oven at 300 degrees F for about 5 minutes.
- Combine all the dressing ingredients in a bowl and whisk together.
- Combine the dressing, seeds, and salad for a slaw, or pour a small amount of the dressing on an individual salad and sprinkle with pinch or two of toasted sesame seeds.
The colors in the salad make it right for display on the dining table. The dressing sounds great.
You mention a tahini-based dressing, but I don’t see tahini listed in the ingredients. Are you just referring to the sesame seeds, or should there be actual tahini paste in the dressing?
The tahini is in Sarah’s recipe on My New Roots 🙂
This salad looks so good and the dressing sounds amazing! I love that you make your own dressings. I do that on occasion, but really need to start doing it more. Happy New Year!
I LOVE sesame dressing – thanks for this recipe.