This all-purpose Chinese Cold “salad” dressing is ready to add flavor to blanched or steamed vegetables, tofu, seaweed, noodles, etc. With this sauce, you can make a variety of refreshing, cooling dishes during the warmer months, and use it for anything you have on hand.
Chinese “Salad”
When we say “salad,” we mean it in the broader sense—not lettuce leaves. We’re talking about a broad array of Chinese cold dishes often served as appetizers.
In the summertime, people like to make 凉拌菜 (liángbàn cài), with whatever they have on hand to minimize cooking and heat in the kitchen. The concept is indeed similar to making salad.
But in China, it will take awhile before you see people munching on big bowls of raw lettuce and grilled chicken. At a Shanghai mall food court, there was an experimental salad bar like what you would find in any American city during the lunch rush, but there was NO ONE in line. They were too distracted by all this other good stuff:
Evidently, people in Shanghai would rather stay slim with a seaweed salad than a Western-style leafy salad!
A Dressing for Anything!
This Chinese dressing will make your dinner planning that much easier. I would even make double, triple or quadruple this recipe and keep it refrigerated to be used throughout the week.
It’s all in the flavor of the aromatics: garlic, ginger, Thai chilies, scallions, cilantro… The sauce is so tasty, it can be added to just about anything.
Simply blanch or steam some vegetables, say: carrots, celery, zucchini, cucumber, broccoli, cauliflower, eggplant, peppers, string beans, even mushrooms. You could also include some traditional Chinese add-ins like tofu, seitan, five-spiced tofu, bean threads, seaweed, wood ears, noodles, etc.
If it’s sitting at the back of your refrigerator, chances are you can make it a part of this cold salad!
This recipe is good for about a pound of vegetables. As with any salad dressing, add sauce to your dish until it reaches your ideal preference.
I used this recipe for 12 ounces of seaweed salad. The seaweed tasted perfect with the tangy sauce.
Here are some examples of dishes you can make:
- Chinese Tofu Salad (with tofu noodles, spiced tofu, or tofu skin, i.e. another version of our tofu salad recipe)
- Cucumber Salad (with smashed cucumbers, similar to this cucumber salad recipe)
- Steamed Chinese Eggplant (like our Steamed Eggplant, Hunan-Style)
- Wood Ear Mushroom Salad (like a different version of our existing Wood Ear Mushroom Salad)
- Seaweed Salad
As you can see from above, we’ve already published recipes for many of these cold dishes. But with this sauce, you can whip up an alternative version of any of those dishes!
Recipe Instructions
In a large heat-proof bowl, arrange the minced garlic, minced ginger, the white parts of the chopped scallion, and chopped Thai chilies so they are adjacent to each other at the bottom of the bowl (don’t messily pile them all on top of each other).
Now infuse the Sichuan peppercorns in oil. In a small pot, heat 3 tablespoons of vegetable oil with the Sichuan peppercorns over low heat until fragrant, taking care not to burn the peppercorns. After about 10 minutes, remove the peppercorns using a fine meshed strainer or slotted spoon.
Heat the infused oil just until it begins to smoke. Pour it carefully over the arranged aromatics in the bowl. It will bubble and sizzle!
Carefully stir to evenly distribute the heat.
Now add in the sugar, vinegar, light soy sauce, oyster sauce, sesame oil, salt and five spice powder. Mix well.
Finally add in the green parts of the chopped scallion and the cilantro. (If pre-making the sauce, leave these last ingredients out and add them right before serving.)
And that’s it! A tasty Chinese salad dressing of sorts, for cold dishes to take you through the rest of the summer!
Chinese Cold “Salad” Dressing 凉拌汁
Ingredients
- 4 cloves garlic (minced; 4 cloves = about 15g)
- 3 thin slices ginger (minced; 3 thin slices = about 8g)
- 2 scallions (chopped, with the green and white parts separated)
- 3 Thai chilies (chopped)
- 3 tablespoons vegetable oil
- 1 tablespoon Sichuan peppercorns
- 1 1/2 teaspoons sugar
- 2 teaspoons Chinese black vinegar (or to taste)
- 2 1/2 tablespoons light soy sauce
- 1 teaspoon oyster sauce (or vegetarian oyster sauce)
- 1/2-1 teaspoon sesame oil
- 1/4 teaspoon salt (or to taste)
- 1/4 teaspoon five spice powder
- 1 tablespoon cilantro (chopped; or to taste)
Instructions
- In a large heat-proof bowl, arrange the minced garlic, minced ginger, the white parts of the chopped scallion, and chopped Thai chilies so they are adjacent to each other at the bottom of the bowl (don’t messily pile them all on top of each other).
- Now infuse the Sichuan peppercorns in oil. In a small pot, heat 3 tablespoons of vegetable oil with the Sichuan peppercorns over low heat until fragrant, taking care not to burn the peppercorns.
- After about 10 minutes, remove the peppercorns using a fine meshed strainer or slotted spoon. Heat the infused oil just until it begins to smoke. Pour it carefully over the arranged aromatics in the bowl. It will bubble and sizzle! Carefully stir to evenly distribute the heat.
- Now add in the sugar, vinegar, light soy sauce, oyster sauce, sesame oil, salt and five spice powder. Mix well.
- Finally add in the green parts of the chopped scallion and the cilantro. (If pre-making the sauce, leave these last ingredients out and add them right before serving.)
Oh wow, this sauce is so good and refreshing. I dipped my steam chicken onto this sauce and its taste so good. No more just plain soy sauce and sesame oil for my chicken from now on. How long can this sauce be kept in fridge? Thank you so much for this recipe.
That’s a great application for this sauce, I’m glad you enjoyed it.
This is sooo good I’ve been making this recipe over and over again nonstop since I discovered it! Only change I made to it is to lessen the amount of Sichuan peppercorns so my kids can enjoy without the numbing :)
Thank you so much for the recipe!
Great! I am so glad.
It’s delicious. Just the thing I was looking for to drizzle over some crispy tofu. Thank you for being such a resource.
Lovely! So glad you enjoyed it.
When you talk about sichuan peppercorn, do you mean the whole seed or just the “cover”?
Many thanks for all the inspiration!
Hi there, Sichuan peppercorn in general just refers to the hull around the seed of the plant, and that’s how it’s sold. At your local Chinese grocery store, look for packages labeled “prickly ash” or “sichuan peppercorn,” and you can’t go wrong. Just make sure to choose the red, as opposed to the green, which are much more pungent.
Ok.
I also got the black seeds in my bag. Should I remove them first?
I did try this dressing a long ago and found it incredible to many vegetables and noodles dishes. Thanks for sharing!!
You are very welcome, Luna.
Just tried this sauce over some spiralized raw zucchini noodles. Excellent. It will be just as good over some grilled veggies (onions, eggplant, mushrooms, zucchini gai lan) and with a side of grilled salmon, shrimp or tofu. I will be putting this on my regular rotation of grilled or raw veggies sauces.
Excellent!!! Thank you for trying out the recipe.
There was a hot sauce commercial that said “I put that **** on everything”. That’s what I do with this recipe. I have been known to just grab a spoonful as a snack. You guys are AWESOME! Thank you for all your work!
Hahaha…is it that good?
It IS!
Hello, I love Japanese seaweed salad. Where did you buy the seaweed to make the salad above please? Could you include a photo of the packaging? Thanks so much in advance.
Hi Monica, that cold seaweed salad recipe is coming :-)
I can’t wait for the seaweed salad recipe!
Hi Angela, it is a Chinese seaweed salad, not Japanese. The seaweed is a bit different!
So interesting. Why are items carefully arranged in step 1?
Hi Amy, so the hot oil can sizzle all the aromatics evenly.
How long can you keep it in the frig?
It can be kept in the refrigerator for a week to 10 days.