Tamari Lime Dressing

Simple 4 ingredient Asian style tamari lime salad dressing with deep savoury soy flavours balanced perfectly with the citrusy goodness of lime. It is easy to make and goes well with salads, noodles and fish.

Why You’ll Love Our Tamari Lime Dressing

When creating a salad dressing, we always have to keep in mind balancing the flavours not only in the salad dressing itself but how it complements the ingredients in the salad. At the end of the day, you want to kill the salad with the dressing.

When there are sweeter ingredients, like fruit in our savoury salads, we like to balance it with a more savoury salad dressing. 

Our Tamari Lime dressing recipe is perfect for that.

In this very simple dressing, we mix tamari sauce, lime juice, olive oil and rice malt syrup together for a tangy dressing loaded with umami. 

Easy 4 ingredient Asian style tamari salad dressing that can be used for not only our watermelon apple salad but will be great with mango salads, leafy greens, soba noodles, vermicelli, glass noodles or even steamed fish, grilled salmon and barbecue chicken.  

What is Tamari?

Tamari is a type of soy sauce that originated in Japan. It is a dark, rich soy sauce that is made from fermented soybeans. 

Tamari is typically used in Japanese cuisine as a dipping sauce, marinade, or as a seasoning in various dishes. We do prefer to use tamari for sushi. The darker caramel undertones are also great for creating Japanese soup bases.

What Is the Difference Between Tamari and Soy Sauce?

Tamari and soy sauce pretty much look identical on the supermarket shelf.  However, there are some subtle differences between flavour, consistency and usage.

One of the key differences between tamari and soy sauce is the absence of wheat. Tamari does not contain wheat in the sauce, therefore making it suitable for those with gluten intolerance or sensitivity. It is also commonly used as a gluten-free alternative to soy sauce.

Tamari has a milder, less salty taste compared to regular soy sauce, with a deeper, more complex flavour and slightly thicker consistency.

Naturally brewed Chinese soy sauce is pressed from a fermented concoction of soybeans, water, wheat, salt and sugar. There are many variations of soy sauces, from light to thick caramel concoctions. We like to experiment with all types in our dressings, including light soy in chilli soy dressing, ginger soy dressing and sweeter kecap manis in our water chestnut salad.

Generally, you can substitute tamari with soy sauce unless you are serving a gluten free dish. However, do check for taste before adding too much or too little depending on the recipe.

Ingredients

Here are the ingredients you will need to make this tamari lime dressing:

• Tamari: Nothing quite like a deep flavoured tamari for a gluten free dressing. If you’ve never used tamari before, you can try San-j Organic Tamari or Kikkoman Gluten Free Tamari.

• Olive oil: Add some good olive oil for the salad to soak up.

• Lime: Inject some citrusy goodness to highlight the other flavours in the recipe.

• Organic rice malt syrup: Usually made from brown rice and also commonly known as brown rice syrup. Great alternative to honey for a vegan recipe. It is easily accessible in the health section of your local supermarkets. Lundberg, Organic Brown Rice Syrup is a good place to start.

Variations and Substitutions

Tamari substitute: Substitute tamari for light soy sauce if you don’t need a gluten free tamari dressing.

Lime variation: If you don’t have lime, you can substitute it with lemon juice or even a splash of yuzu juice like our yuzu dressing. Alternatively, a splash of rice vinegar would also work.

Alternative for rice malt syrup: It is derived from brown rice and is a great vegan sweetener used in place of honey. However, if you don’t have rice malt syrup, honey or maple syrup works well too. 

Instructions

Here are the step by step instructions for how to make this tamari lime dressing:

In a small jar or mixing bowl, add all the ingredients – tamari, lime juice, rice malt syrup and olive oil together. 

Mix well and serve. 

How to Store

Store tamari lime dressing in the mason jar and it will keep for 3 days when refrigerated.

Best Salad for This Dressing

Watermelon Apple and Mint Salad

A quick 4-ingredient salad that is super vibrant for those warm summer days with sweet watermelon, crispy apple, refreshing mint and buttery pine nuts. The savoury tamari lime dressing adds depth and amplifies the sweetness of the salad, making it deliciously perfect for easy entertaining.