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Carrot Ginger Dressing is inspired by the dressing you’d get at a Japanese restaurant. It’s bright and flavorful, and very easy to make at home without any specialty ingredients.
What is Japanese Salad Dressing Made of?
This carrot ginger dressing requires just a few basic ingredients.
- Carrots
- Ginger
- Onion (or shallot)
- Honey (or maple syrup, for vegans)
- Toasted sesame oil
- Apple cider vinegar (or rice vinegar, if you have it)
- Olive oil
I’ve left out the miso and soy sauce that can sometimes be used in this dressing, because I don’t always have them on hand. The flavor is still fantastic!
How to Make It
Just toss everything in the blender, and you’ll have a flavorful sauce that you’ll want to pour on everything. I could even just drink it straight from the blender!
What I love about this carrot ginger dressing, is that you can taste as you go. If you think it’s too sweet, add an extra splash of vinegar, or a pinch of salt.
If it’s not sweet enough, you can add an extra squeeze of honey, or a touch of maple syrup. The flavor is totally up to you!
I make this in my Vitamix blender, which has a narrow base and is great for making small batches of dressing. You can probably also make this in a smaller single-serving blender.
I have not tested making this in a food processor yet, but I imagine you’d need a larger quantity in that case, to get everything blended.
How to Use Carrot Ginger Dressing
The recipe below is the smallest batch I can make in my blender, since you’ll need a minimum amount to get everything blending smoothly. So, here’s how you can use the leftovers if you need some ideas.
- Drizzle it on a buddha bowl, loaded with grains and crunchy veggies.
- Pour it over roasted cauliflower.
- Use it on a side salad, served with a bowl of Miso Soup.
- Serve it with a Vegan Sushi Bowl.
- Use it as a dip for Garden Vegetable Rolls.
However you use it up, I hope you’ll enjoy this Carrot Ginger dressing as much as I do!
Ingredients
- 1 cup chopped carrots (about 2 medium carrots; 175 grams)
- 2 inches fresh ginger
- 1/2 cup chopped onion or shallot (57 grams; about 1/4 of an onion)
- 3 tablespoons apple cider vinegar (43 grams)
- 2 tablespoons honey (38 grams)
- 1 teaspoon toasted sesame oil (7 grams)
- 6 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
- 1/4 cup water
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
Instructions
- Combine all of the ingredients in a blender, and blend until completely smooth. Taste and adjust any of the flavors to your liking.
- You can serve this dressing right away, or store it in an airtight container in the fridge for up to 1 week.
Notes
- If you don't have fresh ginger on hand, I'd start with 1/2 teaspoon of ground ginger, and add more to taste.
- To make this recipe vegan, use 2 to 3 tablespoons of maple syrup instead of the honey.
- Nutrition information is for roughly 3 tablespoons of dressing. This information is automatically calculated, and is just an estimate, not a guarantee.
Nutrition
More Healthy Salad Dressing Recipes
If you need more salad dressing inspiration, try one of my other favorites below!
- Lemon Tahini Dressing (oil-free)
- Apple Cider Vinaigrette
- Italian Dressing
- Tahini Dill Dressing
- Easy Greek Salad Dressing
- Lemon Poppy Seed Dressing
- Balsamic Dressing
If you try this Carrot Ginger dressing recipe, please leave a comment below and let me know what you think. And if you make any modifications, I’d love to hear about those, too! We can all benefit from your experience.
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Reader Feedback: What’s your favorite salad dressing?
This was really good on a cabbage salad. Bonus– it’s low histamine!
How long will this last in the fridge?
One of my favorite salad dressing recipes of all time. So good.
I can’t believe how good this dressing is. I accidentally left out the ginger and it was still delicious, for those who can’t do ginger. It does taste like that yummy Japanese restaurant dressing. This will be a part of my rotation from now on. Thank you!
So healthy juice recipe this is!