Miso Salad Dressing Recipe: How to Make Miso Salad Dressing

Miso salad dressing is a vinaigrette flavored with miso paste. Miso is the ultimate reference point for the flavor sensation known as umami; the thick paste is deeply savory with toasty, funky, salty-sweet richness. Umami flavor forms the base of much of everyday Japanese cooking. Miso-based dressings, which typically contain some type of oil and an acid, can be used to dress everything from noodle salads to green salads to slaws—or simply as a dip for veggies.

Miso is a fermented soybean paste from Japan used as seasoning throughout Asian cuisine. Miso soup may be its most familiar application, but it makes an appearance in everything from salad dressings to pickles to marinades. It’s also one of the crucial components of soy sauce. The history of miso can be traced to its ancient Chinese counterpart, soybean jiang, which is one variation in a genre of thick pastes known as jiang.