If you are looking for some other delicious homemade salad dressing recipes, be sure to try our Olive Garden Salad Dressing, Creamy Cilantro Lime Dressing, Homemade Caesar Salad Dressing, and Creamy Parmesan Peppercorn Dressing. When we were visiting Kauai this past spring, I noticed this papaya seed dressing at the luau we attended and was intrigued. I’ve never been a big fan of papaya, but I’m always willing to try new things, so I gave it a shot. It was delicious and not at all what I was expecting it to be like. Turns out, papaya seeds have a strong, almost black peppercorn and mustard flavor to them, and they make a fantastic salad dressing. So when we came home, I decided to make it for my American Eats series representing Hawaii since most of the papaya in the U.S. comes from Hawaii and this dressing is from the islands, as far as I can tell. Plus, it’s a great salad for early summer and fall when papayas are in season, although you can pretty much obtain ripe papayas year round. With the warm weather we have been having, salads sound so good and refreshing. This is a great one with a zing from the sweet-tart papaya seed dressing. It even makes me like papaya, which I’ve never really enjoyed before. I like making small batches of salad dressing like this so that I have more variety for my salads, rather than filling up my fridge with bottled salad dressings.
How to Prepare Papaya
If you, like me, haven’t had much experience with papaya before, you prepare it just like you would a cantaloupe. Slice the whole thing in half lengthwise, then clean out the seeds with a spoon. Typically I would just toss them in the trash just like with canteloupe seeds, but now that I know better, I remove and reserve the seeds for this papaya seed salad dressing. Then you just use a sharp knife to remove the flesh of the fruit from the thick skin and slice it or chop it for serving.
Ingredients in Homemade Papaya Seed Dressing
rice vinegarcanola oilsweet onionhoneysaltdry mustardfresh papaya seeds
How to Make Papaya Seed Dressing
More Homemade Salad Dressings
Strawberry Balsamic VinaigretteGrandma Nash’s Poppy Seed DressingCreamy Cajun DressingHomemade Caesar Salad DressingCreamy Parmesan Peppercorn DressingHoney Mustard Salad Dressingand here are all of my salad recipes!
More States I Have Visited in my American Eats Series
Alabama • Alaska • Arizona • Arkansas • California • Colorado • Connecticut • Delaware • Florida • Georgia • Hawaii • Idaho • Illinois • Indiana • Iowa • Kansas • Kentucky • Louisiana • Maine • Maryland • Massachusetts • Michigan • Minnesota • Mississippi • Missouri • Montana • Nebraska • New Jersey • New York • Oregon • Puerto Rico • South Carolina • South Dakota • Texas • Utah • Wisconsin Let me know what you thought with a comment and rating below. You can also take a picture and tag me on Instagram @houseofnasheats or share it on the Pinterest pin so I can see.
