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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?
I love this dressing even more than the dressings at the restaurant!
This is my husband’s favorite dressing!! He loves it when I make this one!
I made this but it did not taste good. Maybe I did the ginger wrong. I am not sure what 2” of ginger means.
Holy yum! This is the best salad dressing I have made to date and want to put it on everything! Went great with a spinach salad and drizzled it over a veggie bowl for lunch. So delicious!
Do you think I can make this w30 compliant by using a date instead of maple syrup or honey?
Yes, I usually use 2 pitted dates to replace 1 tablespoon of maple syrup or honey. Hope you enjoy it!
Just made this for some fresh lettuce from the farmers market… I could just drink this right out of the blender! Great recipe, thank you!
I need your help!! I’ve recently been diagnosed with silent reflux (throat reflux) and am on a really low-acid diet – no lemons or limes or vinegars (or really anything with a ph under 5 – so almost all fruits) + no onions and garlic. I love salads and have been searching for any that don’t contain an acid but it seems impossible. Do you think this carrot dressing would taste ok without the vinegar and onion? I LOVE your detox book (looked through it yesterday) but alas, no salad dressing recipes without an acid. Any help would be greatly appreciated! I’ve been doing salads with just olive oil and salt lately and they just don’t hit the mark…Thank you!!!
Sorry, that sounds like a challenge! Acid is one of the primary additions into any good salad dressing, so I can’t imagine that you’ll love the taste of this recipe without the acid, but I do think your taste buds will adjust as you get used to not having the acid flavor. Hope the diet is just temporary for you!
Hello! How are you chopping/measuring the chopped ginger? Thank you!
This is a great dressing! Modified it a little bit and raw apple cider vinegar and added a couple of cloves of garlic. Great for making “mayo-less” cole slaw!
This dressing is just amazing! I made it with apple cider vinegar, same amount as for the coconut yoke and it worked out wonderfully well.