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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!
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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?
Made it tonight. My wife and I loved it straight out of the blender on spring mix. Going to try it tomorrow on stir fry chicken. Thanks!
Do you know if coconut vinegar is ok to eat when pregnant? The raw factor is throwing me… And I have been overanylyzing my food choices lately! 🙂
According to Bragg’s website, yes it’s safe for pregnancy: https://bragg.com/products/acvFAQ.html#acv_faq3d
I drank it regularly when I was pregnant! 🙂
I just made this dressing but didn’t have coconut vinegar so I used braggs ACV OMG this is the greatest tasting thing ever. It’s exactly like a ginger dressing I used to buy at the grocery store. This is amazing.
I just made this and the consistency was like a paste. Any suggestions how to improve it at this point?
This recipe is spot-on even without the addition of miso. I used green onion as that’s all I had in the house, and it worked wonderfully well. Thanks for another hit, Megan 🙂
This was delicious!!! I have been making many of your recipes for my family, and we have yet to come across one we didn’t like!! I am really excited about your cookbook. I can’t wait to try out more recipes! Thank you for creating such delicious, healthy recipes! It is much appreciated! 🙂
There was a Japanese restaurant where I went to college that had the best ginger dressing, haven’t been able to find anything as good in my local restaurants. Who knew I could make it in my own kitchen. Thanks Megan!!
This sounds delicious…I’ve always loved the dressing that comes on salads at Japanese restaurants…I could drink it it’s so good! I’ll definitely be trying this one!
Thank you for this awesome recipe! I’ve been loving it 🙂 ?? you said it’s good for 4 days in the fridge… I made it 4 days ago and still have half the amount left.. can I go beyond those 4 days? :/
My boyfriend and I have been going to Japanese restaurants lately specfically for that dressing…he hates salad because he doesnt like many dressings except for this one. He said he would eat more salad if we found out how to make this dressing so thank you so much, there will be many more salads in his future!