When I talk about my go-to dishes, some variation of this sauce is used in most all of the Korean dishes that I pull together. My mom taught it to me when I was first starting to cook in college, and I quickly learned that there are a million and one different ways to use it. Like most Korean moms I know, she didn’t have a recipe written out for it, and she couldn’t even tell me measurements. She just showed me. And after making it over and over again, I’ve become the same way with it. I pour in a little bit of soy sauce, add a small drizzle of sesame oil, and then a little of this and that. After being asked for the recipe many, many times, I decided to put it in recipe form to share. 

I most often use this sauce to dress tofu salads which become a side dish for a Korean/Asian meal. A typical version I’ll make is tofu, chopped cucumber, carrot shavings, and chopped green onion. You can add any and every kind of vegetable you like in a salad! This week I made a one with thinly sliced red cabbage, tofu, and chives because that’s what I had in the fridge.

This week I also tossed the dressing with steamed broccoli as another simple side. And, you’ll notice that a variation of this dressing is used in this Korean braised chicken slow cooker dish. Minus the sesame oil, and subbing in a cooking wine, or vinegar, you can use this dressing to marinate many different kinds of meat and even fish. It’s super versatile!

Korean Everything Sauce

1/3 cup soy sauce*
1tsp – scant 1TB sesame oil, be carefuly, a little goes a long way
1 small glove garlic, minced
1 scant tablespoon honey or sugar
1tsp sesame seeds, more to garnish at the end
optional, 1/2 tsp Korean red pepper flakes

Mix everything together and pour over whatever you want to dress it with.

* I use Monggo Sun Soy sauce, it’s less salty than the Kikkoman brand. If you use the latter or a soy sauce that’s on the saltier side, you can dilute the sauce with a little water.