Last year, my husband and I snuck away for a long weekend in Vancouver, B.C. On our way to the train station, we stopped and had a quick Vietnamese lunch at a little spot in Seattle’s International District. I can’t remember the name but the food was really good and I made some notes about the salad that I had so I could try to recreate it at home.
Fast forward to last week when I was cleaning out a travel bag I haven’t used for a while and stumbled upon those notes! I was super excited to see that I wrote down the ingredients and flavors in such great detail and decided to recreate the dish for dinner.
Today, I am posting the salad dressing. Next will be the Lemongrass Chicken that topped the salad and finally, the entire Vietnamese Herb Salad as I remember it.
If you love Southeast Asian food as much as me (LOVE!), this dressing will quickly become a summer staple. This dressing is light, free of refined sugar, can be also be used as a dipping sauce for spring rolls and adds a great deal of flavor to Vietnamese style salads!
NOTES:
- I know some of you are thinking, “Is rice vinegar Paleo?” In my opinion, YES and if you don’t have any reactions to it, I can’t see a reason to exclude it from your diet.
Adapted From: http://www.sbs.com.au/food/recipes/vietnamese-dressing-nuoc-mam-cham
Did you make this recipe? Please give it a star rating below!
Vietnamese Salad Dressing. Refined Sugar Free. Paleo Vietnamese Dressing.
- 1/2 cup cold filtered water
- 1/4 cup fish sauce I like this brand
- 1/4 cup rice vinegar
- 2 tablespoons freshly squeezed lime juice
- 2 1/2 tablespoons coconut palm sugar
- 2 medium cloves garlic finely chopped
- 1 teaspoon finely chopped serrano chile or red birdseye chile
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Combine water, fish sauce, rice vinegar, lime juice and palm sugar in a glass jar with a tight fitting lid. Place lid on and shake vigorously until palm sugar is dissolved.
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Add chopped garlic and chopped chile, replace lid, shake again and refrigerate until ready to use. I like to make this at least an hour or two in advance so the acid mellows out the garlic and pepper a bit. Enjoy!
Did you make this recipe? Tag @EverydayMaven on Instagram with the hashtag #EveryDayMaven and please give a star rating below.
I made this to go on a beef and mango Thai salad that called for a popular jarred Thai dressing in Australia. It was perfect!
Yummmm Sheryl – I want the recipe for the beef and mango salad – sounds awesome 🙂
Alyssa, I tried sending you a link. If that did not work, check out taste.au site and search for Sweet and Sour Thai Beef and Mango Salad
Thanks Sheryl!! I’ll check it out 🙂
Please post the name of the restaurant you were inspired by.
Hi Julie, It was so long ago (I originally posted this recipe in 2014) that I can’t remember the name anymore. Sorry!
Absolutely delicious
So happy to it Deborah! Thanks 🙂
Delicious!
So glad to hear you like it Susan!
What brand fish sauce would you recommend? Could you please post a picture? Thanks.
Hi Anna – I can’t add a picture in the comments but I like Red Boat. Here is an affiliate link to it on Amazon if you want to look at the photo.
I use hoisin
What is,the shelf life of this dressing?
Hi! I usually keep it 4 to 6 days (in the fridge!)
This sounds so yummy, I love the elimination of oil. Do you think this would work with a sauce like sriracha instead of actual peppers?
Try it! Let me know how it turns out 🙂
Such a great salad dressing recipe that I’d be proud to share…Thanks so much!
Thanks Nenette! Glad you like it!
I made this tonight, it was fresh and tasty. No oil used so reasonably light on calories too. Great recope