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!
Carrot Ginger Dressing (Japanese Dressing)
Equipment
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?
That looks great! What kind of lettuce did you use?
I used mixed greens that I already had in the fridge– but I imagine it would work well over most greens!
I’ve never used raw coconut vinegar. What are the benefits to this as opposed to another vinegar? Does it add coconut flavor? I have all the ingredients except that vinegar. What would be another vinegar I could substitute and get similar flavor? This sounds delicious (like all your recipes I might add 🙂 )
Raw coconut vinegar has a higher amino acid, vitamin and mineral content when compared to other vinegars, and is a bit lower in acidity. I think a rice vinegar would work well as a substitute in this recipe, since that’s what is typically called for in this style of dressing.
Thanks Megan for the quick reply – know you are busy with your cute little one! All of your recipes are delicious! Thank you! All I’ve tried are great!
Just made it with rice vinegar and. O honey. Delicious!
Yay! My boyfriend and I have been trying to recreate our favorite sushi place’s dressing for a while now with little success. This might be it! Any suggestions to replace the raw coconut vinegar? It sounds awesome but I’ve never seen this at my store =( Apple Cider Vinegar maybe?
Apple cider vinegar might be more pungent in flavor, so I’d start with less and add more to your taste.
This sounds tasty! I bookmarked it & look forward to making it :0). I do have all the ingredients except the raw coconut vinegar, but that may be worth getting as I wonder if it’s a less acidic vinegar. I already have rice vinegar. Would that be a good fit for this & be less acidic than other vinegars? Wisely or not I’ve been avoiding vinegar because it’s acid-forming, & I have acid reflux. But I’ve also heard that vinegar can help with acid reflux? Thank you for any light you can shine on my quandary, & thank you for always sharing your fantastic recipes!
Rice vinegar should definitely provide a similar flavor! I’m not sure about the acid refulx issue in regards to vinegar, but I’ll be sure to let you know if I come across any reliable info on that.
Acid reflux occurs when the sphincter valve doesn’t close all the way & occurs when it needs more acid to digest your food. Do you drink a lot of water during meals? Try to drink 4 oz. or less at meals – If you want more to drink – have it at least 30 min prior to meal or wait 1 ½ hrs. after meal. Our dr. told us to have a little vinegar or pickle juice at the end of a meal to help digest our food. As you get older, your body isn’t producing as many enzymes needed to break down food but drinking too much water at meals can create the same thing as the water dilutes the enzymes so the enzymes aren’t as effective in breaking down the food. (I’m not a dr. – this is just what a doctor told us years ago……………………when my husband was experiencing acid reflux. He started drinking less water during meals and takes 1 or 2 teaspoons of pickle juice after dinner and the acid reflux went away. Also allow 2 hours after meals before going to bed.)
I love anything with ginger–this looks so yummy!
Where do you get the coconut vinegar?
I bought mine at Whole Foods, but it’s also available online: http://amzn.to/1gdUT6d
This dressing sounds amazing! I can’t wait to try it on a kale salad this week-I bet the whole family will gobble the salad up 🙂
Wow! This looks delicious – I had something similar this weekend and was thinking “I need to find a healthy version of this!” Thanks!! Do you think white balsamic would also work well?
YUM! I adore the dressing at Japanese restaurants and love that you made it at home. I am definitely giving this a try this week.
This is my favorite dressing! 🙂
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!
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? :/
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!
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 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! 🙂
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 🙂
I just made this and the consistency was like a paste. Any suggestions how to improve it at this point?
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.
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! 🙂
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!
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.
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!
Hello! How are you chopping/measuring the chopped ginger? 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!
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!
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!
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!
I made this but it did not taste good. Maybe I did the ginger wrong. I am not sure what 2” of ginger means.
This is my husband’s favorite dressing!! He loves it when I make this one!
I love this dressing even more than the dressings at the restaurant!
So healthy juice recipe this is!
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!
One of my favorite salad dressing recipes of all time. So good.
How long will this last in the fridge?
This was really good on a cabbage salad. Bonus– it’s low histamine!