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
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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.
We’re having Asian Taco Salad night, with tiny gingery pork meatballs, cilantro slaw, avocado, cuke, radish, and your tasty dressing, because I misplaced mine, but it’s basically the same. Thanks so much!!
Awesome Terri! That sounds like a great meal 🙂
How lucky that you stumbled on your notes again by chance after all this time. It sounds like it was a memorable dish!
Thanks Sylvie!
I love Vietnamese food too – espesh the yummy salads. I like your version of this classic dressing. Can’t wait to see the rest of this series!It’s so useful both as a dressing but also as a dipping sauce and drizzle on rice dishes too. Or at least that’s why me old greedy guts does!
I am with you Kellie! Such amazing flavors 🙂
Oooo this dressing sounds fabulous!! I am definitely glad you took notes because I have been trying to eat more salads and am looking for fun ways to mix them up!
There are so many uses for this dressing Joanne!
So glad you found those notes! I must try this one soon.
Thanks Lea Ann – so am I!
I love Vietnamese food – it’s especially good for the summer – the cold noodles, the salads, the spring rolls…I could go on and on 😉 Pinning this salad dressing for later.
Looks yummy – how long will it keep?
I’ve kept it up to a week Robyn!
Do you have any ideas for a substitution
For fish sauce. I have a sensitivity to anchovies
Hi Kat,
Gosh, for this one that is tough because there is so much of the fish sauce and it really makes the flavor. You could try Tamari with some miso or additional lime juice to sour it but I think it’s going to be off. Truthfully, I would suggest a different dressing. Sorry!
Hi!
Awesome recipe i love my nuoc mam!
Have you tried doing this with the squid ‘fish sauce?’ Its a bit saltier than some fish sauces and is a bit different but almost interchangeable. Perhaps that can be an alternative for your friend kat.
Awesome blog!
I haven’t but now I want to look for some!!