UPDATE: I’m linking this post to Real Food Friday in 2016 because we still enjoy Spicy Peanut Dressing frequently! We just made a batch last night to go with a big salad made from lettuce, spinach, and green onions we received in the summer’s first box of local, organic produce from our community-sponsored agriculture farm!  Did you know that eating fat with salad is important for full absorption of the vitamins from the vegetables?  Spicy Peanut Dressing contains two kinds of fat, peanut butter and sesame oil.  We also put some tofu on our salads–except for 11-year-old Nicholas, who wanted a fried egg instead–and that made a full and satisfying meal.

Spicy Peanut Dressing is a versatile sauce.  It’s delicious as a salad dressing for lettuce, spinach, kale, or other greens with carrots and cucumbers.  It’s good on tofu, room-temperature or hot, over salad or noodles (try buckwheat soba noodles) or rice.

Take a blob of peanut butter–I never measure because it’s too hard to get it off the measuring spoon, but I use about 1 Tbsp. per person–and melt it, either in a small pot over low heat or in a bowl in the microwave.

Add a good slosh of soy sauce, a good slosh of apple cider vinegar or lime juice, a good slosh of sesame oil, and a small blob of honey.

Sprinkle heavily with cayenne pepper flakes or hot pepper sauce, garlic powder or granulated garlic, and ginger.

Mix thoroughly.  It will look weird and curdled, but if you keep mixing you’ll get a uniform paste.  Taste it and adjust seasoning to your liking.

Mix in water or fruit juice (apple, orange, pineapple are all good but have different effects on the overall flavor) until it reaches a pourable consistency.

Store in a glass jar at room temperature, and use it up within about 5 days.