A restaurant remake success that I could just cry over!
A Sacramento restaurant called Lemongrass Asian Grill & Noodle Bar makes the most amazing spicy salad dressing ever. You know how restaurants give you an excessively large container of dressing for your takeout salad? Like, well over 1/4 C of dressing. Well, I eat all of it.
As in, if I don’t end up drenching every bit of healthy veggie with this dressing, then I soak the white bread they serve alongside in the dressing so that I make sure to eat every little bit of it.
That’s the goal when you order salad from a restaurant, eh?
Well, I had to remake it.
Taking notes and trying to ponder the ingredients while eating said dressing doesn’t go very well. Why, you ask? Because while I’m devouring my dressing-soaked salad, my taste buds make damn sure that my brain isn’t properly functioning for fear that it would tell me to stop eating.
So I had very little idea where to begin with this one. Fortunately, it turns out that as long as I have a strong lemongrass flavor and some chili oil, it tastes like what I wanted! Happy.
Suuuuch a good dressing. I am going to make a jar full. Soon. Will update 🙂
dressing:
serves 2
1 T white miso paste
1 t grated lemongrass (cut the end off a stalk, remove the outer leaves, and grate)
1/2 t grated fresh ginger
1 T safflower oil (any plain flavored vegetable oil will work)
1 T + 2 t seasoned rice vinegar
1/2 t chili oil*
*to mimic the restaurant dressing, I really wanted chili oil with the chunks of chili at the bottom, and used about 1/4 t the actual chili pieces and 1/4 t oil – but you could certainly vary that with whatever kind of chili oil you like/have
Whisk everything together! Enjoy. I hope you like it as much as I do.
I put it on a very simple salad, but here’s the recipe for everything else if you want it!
salad:
serves 1
4 oz breaded tofu (recipe below)
2 T red onion slices
1/4 avocado
2 C greens
breaded tofu:
serves 1
2 T flour (I used whole wheat pastry flour)
4 oz tofu
1 T safflower oil
Heat a small nonstick skillet over medium-high heat. Put flour on a shallow dish, slice tofu into logs, and coat in flour. Add oil to skillet, then add tofu logs until browned on all sides.
I like to add half the oil when I first add the tofu and the other half after I flip the tofu over – the flour seems to soak up all the oil, and you’ll lose it all on the first side if you add it all at once.
Pile your salad high. Savor the yummy yummy dressing.
Nutrition facts per serving (dressing): Calories: 91; Calories from Fat: 72; Total Fat: 8.0g; Saturated Fat: 0.6g; Sodium: 320mg; Total Carbohydrates: 4.1g; Sugars: 0.9g; Protein: 0.0g
Nutrition facts per serving (the rest of the salad): Calories: 285; Calories from Fat: 194; Total Fat: 21.5g; Saturated Fat: 2.6g; Sodium: 65mg; Total Carbohydrates: 15.9g; Dietary Fiber: 6.5g; Sugars: 1.3g; Protein: 12.8g
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