A scrumptious, refreshing leafy salad with sweet clementines, crunchy cashews, cucumbers, creamy avocado and soft-boiled eggs with a sesame-lemon dressing! This 15-minute Asian Salad with Sesame Lemon Dressing is a great way to get in your fiber.
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This Asian Salad with Sesame Lemon Dressing is probably hands down one of my favorite ways to enjoy a good salad with sweet and savory Asian flavors.
It's a perfect meal, side dish or appetizer for the hot summer months, when you don't feel like cooking as it comes together so easily in just 15 minutes!
The salad dressing is also super easy to make with minimal ingredients. It offers a sweet, nutty, and tangy taste to the salad giving it that Asian-flare. This salad makes eating my veggies so effortless because it's delicious!
I created this easy salad recipe in 2020 because I love clementines in a salad! I find this citrus fruit to be so underrated and there aren't enough salad recipes with them in it. That's how this recipe was created!
Ingredients & Substitutes
Please scroll down to below recipe card for exact measurements.
- Head of romaine lettuce: make sure it's vibrant green and fresh without any yellowing leaves. Or substitute with ice berg lettuce, boston lettuce or green leaf lettuce.
- Clementines: make sure they're ripened, peeled and separated into bite-size pieces.
- Ripe Avocados: to tell if an avocado is ripened, it should be a very dark green almost black color and when you press into the fruit, your thumb should easily imprint it.
- Roasted cashews: or substitute with roasted peanuts or walnuts.
- Soft-boiled eggs: or substitute with hard-boiled eggs for a source of protein. If you can't have eggs, omit it or substitute with extra-firm tofu or cooked chicken.
- Persian cucumbers: these are mini cucumbers or substitute with 1 seedless cucumber.
- Optional topping: I'm using crunchy lentils that are store-bought but feel free to omit this or add more crunchy peanuts.
Salad Dressing
- Extra virgin olive oil: or substitute with a neutral oil like avocado oil or vegetable oil.
- Fresh Garlic
- Sesame oil: for that nutty flavor!
- Honey or maple syrup: or substitute with a liquid sweetener that you enjoy.
- Yellow mustard: in liquid form.
- Freshly-squeezed Lemon juice
- Sesame seeds
Expert Tips
- Get fresh ingredients! This goes without saying but make sure the lettuce, lemons, cucumbers, clementines are fresh and vibrant in color.
- Use roasted cashews for the ideal crunch.
- Make sure that your avocados are ripened before making this recipe. The fruit should easily imprint with your thumb. Avoid storing avocados in the fridge as it can change the texture of the avocado.
- Use room temperature eggs or run cold eggs under warm water until the shell is room temperature. Otherwise the egg shells can easily crack when the cold shell meets the hot boiling water.
- Set a timer when boiling the eggs so you don't overcook them.
- Add 2 teaspoon salt and 2 teaspoon white vinegar to the egg boiling water to make the peeling process much easier! This is optional.
Instructions
Below are step-by-step instructions on how to make Asian Salad with Sesame Lemon Dressing:
- In a small pot filled with hot water, bring to a boil on medium-high heat. Carefully lower room temperature eggs and boil for 7-8 minutes for a soft-yolk that isn't overly runny. For hard-boiled eggs, boil for 10 minutes. Transfer eggs to an ice bath to cool down before cracking and peeling them with the back of a spoon to help you. Slice them into halves or bite-size pieces.
- In a large bowl, add chopped lettuce, separated clementines, sliced avocados, cashews, and sliced cucumbers. Top the salad off with the cooked eggs.
- In a small bowl, combine salad dressing ingredients with a whisk. Pour as much as you'd like over your salad and enjoy!
Storage
- Leftovers will last up to 4 days stored in an airtight container in the refrigerator. I recommend storing the salad dressing separate from the salad if possible.
- Freezer-friendly? I don't recommend freezing this salad as it'll make the lettuce mushy.
Pairing Suggestions
Asian Salad with Sesame Lemon Dressing serves well as a side with these suggested dishes:
- starters like egg rolls, crab rangoons, egg drop soup, hot and sour soup
- white or brown rice, cauliflower rice, fried rice, chow mein, or lo mein
- cooked vegetables like bok choy, spicy garlic bok choy, choy sum, gai lan, garlic green beans or stir fried snow pea leaves.
- protein dishes like Orange Chicken, Lemon Chicken, Cashew Chicken, Mongolian Beef, Honey Walnut Shrimp, Bang Bang Shrimp, Soy Garlic Tofu, Chinese Braised Tofu and more!
FAQ
Yes, this salad can be made up to 4 days in advance but I recommend storing the salad separately from the salad dressing in airtight containers in the fridge. I recommend adding the avocado on the day of serving as it tends to turn brown when left unpeeled in the fridge.
Yes, feel free to add carrots, celery, snap or snow peas, fresh bean sprouts and bell peppers.
Yes, feel free to add cooked chicken, cooked pork, cooked steak, cooked shrimp or sliced extra-firm tofu.
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📖 Recipe
Easy 15-min. Asian Salad with Sesame Lemon Dressing
Ingredients
- 1 head romaine lettuce roughly chopped
- 3 ripe clementines peeled and separated
- 2 ripe avocado peeled and sliced
- ¼ cup roasted cashews or roasted peanuts/walnuts
- 2 persian cucumbers sliced
- 4 large eggs room temperature
Salad Dressing
- 2 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil or any neutral oil
- 2 tablespoon honey or maple syrup
- 1 tablespoon sesame oil
- 1 tablespoon mustard liquid not powdered mustard
- 1 tablespoon lemon juice freshly squeezed
- 2 cloves garlic grated
- ½ teaspoon sesame seeds
Instructions
- In a small pot filled with hot water, bring to a boil on medium-high heat. Carefully lower room temperature eggs and boil for 7-8 minutes for a soft-yolk that isn't overly runny. For hard-boiled eggs, boil for 10 minutes. Transfer eggs to an ice bath to cool down before cracking and peeling them with the back of a spoon to help you. Slice them into halves or bite-size pieces.
- In a large bowl, add chopped lettuce, separated clementines, sliced avocados, cashews, and sliced cucumbers. Top the salad off with the cooked eggs.
- In a small bowl, combine salad dressing ingredients with a whisk. Pour as much as you'd like over your salad and enjoy!
J. Birkigt
What is mustard liquid?
Christie Lai
It's yellow mustard in liquid form that comes in the bottle. Mustard can also come in a dried powder form, hence the clarification.
Tasia ~ two sugar bugs
The flavors and textures in the salad look positively delicious! The lemon sesame must be perfection with it!
Leanne
Love all the ingredients in this salad Christie! Beautiful presentation too. Happy long weekend!
Letscurry
This is such a well balanced Salad Christie, I love how you have added citrus fruits into this.