If you want to change up your salad game, the easiest way is to use a new salad dressing. This Peanut Lime Salad dressing is sweet, savory, tangy, and creamy all in one! And vegan, too! It’s the perfect dressing for any Asian inspired cabbage salad, but can also be drizzled over grilled chicken, shrimp, or vegetables.
What Type of Oil Should I Use?
I’ve listed “neutral oil” in the ingredients list to give you some flexibility. A neutral oil is any oil that is not heavily flavored. They tend to be light in color and carry no overpowering flavor, making them great for sauces and dressings. I used an avocado oil today, which is a bit more expensive, but you can use canola, vegetable, grape seed, corn, peanut, sesame (not toasted), or safflower, among others.
How Long Does Peanut Lime Dressing Last?
Because this dressing contains fresh ingredients, like garlic and ginger, you should only keep this dressing for about 5 days in the refrigerator. Luckily, this makes a fairly small batch, so hopefully you’ll use it all up by that time!
What Should I Serve Peanut Lime Dressing With?
I love it with crunchy cabbage salads, but it’s also great on noodles, tofu, grilled chicken or shrimp, or even grilled or roasted vegetables. I think once you give it a taste you’ll start pouring it on just about everything. ;) Here are a few recipes where I’ve used this Peanut Lime Dressing:
- Cold Peanut Noodle Salad
- Baked Sweet Potato Fries with Peanut Lime Dressing
- Peanut Tofu Noodle Bowls
2019 Updates: I made two small adjustments to the original recipe from 2013. First, I added 1 Tbsp more peanut butter to make the dressing thicker (I’m using a different brand of peanut butter than I originally did, so that may account for the different texture). Second, I added a little fresh ginger because I thought that would add just a bit more pizazz!
Peanut Lime Dressing
Servings 4 about 2.5 Tbsp eachIngredients
- 3 Tbsp natural-style peanut butter ($0.21)
- 1 Tbsp brown sugar ($0.04)
- 1 clove garlic, minced ($0.08)
- 1/2 tsp grated fresh ginger ($0.05)
- 1 medium lime, juiced (2 Tbsp juice) ($0.69)
- 2 tsp soy sauce ($0.08)
- 1/4 cup neutral oil* ($0.82)
Instructions
- Combine all the ingredients in a bowl or blender. Whisk or blend until smooth.
- Serve immediately or refrigerate for up to five days.
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Notes
Nutrition
Scroll down for the step by step photos…
How to Make Peanut Lime Dressing – Step by Step Photos
First juice the lime. You’ll need about 2 Tbsp juice. Roll the lime on your countertop while applying pressure before cutting it open to maximize the amount of juice you get from the lime.
Combine 3 Tbsp peanut butter, 1 Tbsp brown sugar, 1 clove of garlic (minced), and about 1/2 tsp grated fresh ginger in a bowl or blender.
Also add the 2 Tbsp lime juice, 2 tsp soy sauce, and 1/4 cup neutral oil. I used avocado oil, but if you want a more budget friendly option you can use canola, vegetable, safflower, peanut, or grape seed oil.
Whisk or blend the ingredients together until smooth. If you are whisking by hand it may look a little chunky at first, but keep whisking and it will form a smooth emulsion.
Use the peanut lime dressing immediately, or refrigerate for up to five days. See this recipe used in my Cold Peanut Noodle Salad!
This was excellent! I tasted it as I was making it, and was a bit worried that it would be underwhelming after I’d blended it, because it was just coming across as needing a bit more acid, but I was out of limes. =)
And then I added the minced garlic, and the sharpness of that made all the difference. It’s very garlicky (because of the size of my garlic clove, I’m guessing), but I like garlic.
I happened to find my small bag of palm sugar before I got to the regular (cane) brown sugar, so I used that instead.
I think it would also be good with a bit of fish sauce added to it.
It was delicious on a chicken stir fry.
Added extra lime and a sprinkle of powdered ginger to boost it a little
This sauce is SO good. I make it all the time and throw it on basically any sauteed veggies with rice and oml it absolutely slaps. 10/10 recommend it.
This is absolutely amazing. We needed to make another batch the first time we made it because everyone ate it up so quickly! We tossed it with noodles and pork.
I added a tsp each of sesame oil and rice vinegar and an extra splash of soy and oh my gosh I loved it so much. I’ll be making this all the time so I can always have it in my fridge.
This was good! The dressing turned out a little thicker than I anticipated, but it tasted fine. I used a “Chopped Asian Salad Kit” as a base instead of making my own and added shrimp.
That’s a good kit to use! Thanks Ashley!
Something went wrong … in a really delicious way. While in the blender, the sauce started to coagulate. I added a couple of tablespoons of water, kept blending on, and now I have a kind of very yummy peanut lime mayonnaise mousse thingie. I’m going to have this on rice, with avocado and tomatoes. Looking very much forward to tomorrow’s lunch at the office.
Thank you for the recipe! It’s amazing either way :D
The dressing may look a little like it has “curdles” before it has fully emulsified, but if you just keep whisking (or blending with your blender) it smooths out really quickly.
When this is served with “Matoke” steamed bananas, comes out very delicious.
This was seriously delicious! I used it as a dipping sauce for chicken and vegetable skewers and it was immediately devoured by all. SO good and easy to make too!
Wow – I am so impressed with this recipe! This stuff is blender/spatula-lickin’ good. It’s great on slaw and I’m sure Peanut Lime Slaw would be a hit at any summer party. Can’t wait to try this on noodles, too.