Carrot Ginger Dressing
This carrot-ginger salad dressing recipe tastes remarkably fresh, creamy and light. It would pair nicely with other recipes with Asian flavors. Delicious!
Updated by Kathryne Taylor on August 27, 2024
I’m slowly working my way through the veggie options at the sushi restaurant that opened near me. The other day, I ordered a side salad to accompany my sushi. I was intrigued by the dressing—carrot ginger. How had I not tasted carrot-ginger dressing? The dressing was a little more lumpy than smooth, but the flavor was amazing.
I added it to my list to recreate, and I’ve enjoyed every rendition so far, but this final version is my favorite. It’s bright and zingy and fresh, and I want to drizzle it on everything. Homemade dressings always taste a million times better than store-bought.
It’s easy to whip up in a blender—my Vitamix (affiliate link) churns right through the carrots and ginger. I suspect that less expensive blenders are up for the job, too.
Since you’re going to the trouble of peeling and chopping veggies, and blenders require a certain level of volume to gain traction, the full batch yields about 1 1/3 cups. It’s so good that I don’t think you’ll have trouble finishing it off within a week or two.
Create a side salad using any combination of the ideas listed below. It’ll be the perfect accompaniment to main dishes with Asian flavors, and it’s spectacular on my Buddha Bowl recipe. The carrot-ginger combo might play nicely with many Indian entrées as well, although you may want to omit the sesame oil. It’s also great drizzled over cooked rice, tofu, steamed veggies, and more.
Watch How to Make Carrot Ginger Dressing
Looking for more irresistible homemade salad dressings? Here are a few more for you:
- Basic Vinaigrette
- Fresh Mint Dressing
- Sunshine Salad Dressing (healthier honey-mustard)
- Creamy Tahini Dressing
- Green Goddess Dressing
Please let me know how you like this dressing in the comments! I’m always so eager to hear from you.
Carrot Ginger Dressing
This salad dressing tastes remarkably fresh, creamy and light. It would pair nicely with other recipes with Asian flavors. Recipe yields about 1 ⅓ cups salad dressing.
Ingredients
Dressing
- ⅓ cup extra-virgin olive oil
- ⅓ cup rice vinegar
- 2 large carrots, peeled and roughly chopped (about ⅔ cup)
- 2 tablespoons peeled and roughly chopped fresh ginger
- 2 tablespoons lime juice
- 1 tablespoon plus 1 teaspoon honey
- 1 ½ teaspoons toasted sesame oil
- ¼ teaspoon salt, more to taste
Suggested side salad components
- Fresh greens of choice
- Red onion
- Cucumber
- Carrot
- Cherry tomatoes
- Red cabbage
Instructions
- In a blender, combine all of the salad dressing ingredients as listed. Bend until completely smooth. Taste, and add additional salt if the dressing doesn’t make your eyes light up. If it’s too sour (it should have some zing to it), blend in a bit more honey.
- Serve over greens and any other ingredients you’d like (I offered a few more suggestions in the post). Recipe keeps well in the refrigerator, covered, for 1 to 2 weeks.
Notes
Make it vegan: Substitute maple syrup or agave nectar for the honey.
Nutrition
The information shown is an estimate provided by an online nutrition calculator. It should not be considered a substitute for a professional nutritionist’s advice. See our full nutrition disclosure here.
Shucks, this one isn’t my favorite! I love the vast majority of your recipes, but this has way too much vinegar for my taste. I even halved it to start and it was already overpowering.
I’m sorry to hear that! Thank you for sharing your feedback.
Delicious!!
Can this be frozen?
Hi KJ, I don’t freeze all my recipes so I can’t say for sure.
I used it in place of the dressing in the Asian veggie/ noodle bowl. Absolutely delicious!
Hi
We just tried this recipe. It was so good! It was so filling. Some of the vegetables never liked it til now. I added radish thinly sliced and tangerine chopped. Thank you for sharing your recipe. We will be having it more often. Highly recommended
Thanks
Miami , Fl
Thank you for sharing, Alexis!
This is a wonderful dressing. I 3 x’s the which will make 2 pints plus a little.
I had some fresh tumeric that I had dug from my garden and I added a touch of that.
It will hold refrigerator many weeks.
Great recipe!
Absolutely perfect, succulent dressing.
Thank you, AJ! I’m glad you enjoyed it.
I was looking for a simple recipe for carrot-ginger dressing and this one did not disappoint! So easy and yummy, I no longer have to beg the Japanese restaurants for extras. Thanks!
I’m glad you enjoy it, Elissa!
I’ve made a carrot ginger dressing before to my surprise loving it. In a search to repeat I came across this recipe. The color and smell were divine. The flavor was a bit too acidic for my taste, and I couldn’t find the right way to correct it. More oil, salt and doubled up on the carrots…and then it was too sweet and still a bit too acidic. I had made a mess of this recipe by this point. Recipes don’t always work the first time so I’ll definitely try again but go easy on the vinegar.
I’m sorry you didn’t love it as is, Kathy. I appreciate your feedback.
I have to believe it was user error on my part. Next time I will pay attention when I’m measuring and make sure I use a vinegar from my cupboard that isn’t left over from the 20th century!
Shouldn’t the carrots be steamed? because it does not specify thanks
Hi Rose! No need to steam. I hope you try it!
Just made this – Amazing!!! Only change I made was to substitute orange juice for the lime juice. Delicious!!
Happy to hear it turned out, Pam!
I made today and I thought it was very good.
Great to hear, Holis!
Love this recipe. Tastes so zingy and fresh! I’m going to use it alongside the Buddah bowl recipe for lunch this week. Thanks!
You’re welcome, Sophie! Thank you for your review on this dressing.
Delicious. I’ve done it a few times but I’ve been a few additions to make it even more kid friendly. 3 tablespoon orange juice and a few springs of fresh cilantro. Also, depending on how fresh the ginger is, sometimes I need to put half a cup of olive oil to make it smooth enough. It’s delicious on a variety of dishes.
Thank you for sharing! I’m glad you loved it.
This is a great easy recipe. You might want to add a note that if you use seasoned rice vinegar (sometimes the only type you can find in the regular supermarket) you need a bit less honey because seasoned vinegar contains sugar.
This is my second time making it and I added a bit of cayenne (not enough to identify as cayenne but to make the ginger a bit hotter. I find fresh supermarket ginger varies a lot in terms of heat and gets a bit blander the longer you store it).
Such a versatile dressing. I added a squirt to my homemade coleslaw and wow, I’ll probably always add it now.
Thank you!
Love this dressing so much! The recipe comes out great every time. Thank you
This was so easy to make! I used a cheese grater to grate the carrots and the ginger. It tastes fantastic! I can hardly wait to have it on my salad tomorrow!
I’m glad you loved it! Thank you for your review, Mary.
Just made it Awesome – Thanks for the calories info.
Thank you for your review, Bill!
The carrot sesame dressing was delicious but wouldn’t blend down creamy enough to easily pour onto salad. Could you add a little water to thin it out or do you have any suggestions? Thanks.
Hi Anne, you could try it or try to blend it a bit more. Thanks for your feedback, Anne!
Do you think you could use carrot juice if you don’t have a strong blender?
Hi Sara, Unfortunately I don’t think that will get you the result you would want.
So so so so good!! I’m very impressed!
Thank you, ZM!
I made this and it turned out terrible. I’m so disappointed. I bought organic carrots and I keep my ginger in the freezer. I think my carrots were not sweet at all and I’m wondering if my ginger was frozen too long. I was also wondering about using balsamic vinegar I/o rice vinegar. I know it was me and not the recipe. I’ll try again as soon as I get my confidence back. All your recipes sound delicious and I’m dying to try more of them.
Hi Betsy, I’m sorry to hear that. I’m not sure about freezing your ginger. That could have impacted your results. I hope you try it again!
LOVE this recipe!! Better than the dressing at my local Japanese/sushi restaurant. Fresh, light and delicious.
That’s great, Gina! I appreciate your review.
Amazing recipe . My guests loved it
So good Didn’t have toasted sesame oil…☹️ So put a hit of Calabrian chili oil…loved the way it turned out! I am always a fan of a little heat tho…
I will definitely try it the “ real” way with sesame oil too
Thanks so much!
This looks yummy. Do you think I could double the batch and freeze half of it? Just wondering if it would freeze well. Thank you.
Hi Mary! I don’t know how well this one will freeze. If you try it, be sure to let me know what you think!
Hi! Would love to make this but allergic to sesame. Would it make a difference if I omitted it?
Hi Jo, sorry to hear that! You can try to omit it. Let me know what you think!
Delicious
I’m glad you loved it, Judi!
Very good flavor. I used fresh Nantes variety carrots which add natural sweetness .
Do you suggest unseasoned or seasoned rice vinegar?
Unseasoned if you can find it. Let me know what you think!
This was delicious! I made some alterations based on what was in my pantry. I used lemon juice, crystallized ginger (smaller amount) and little less honey (to compensate for the sugars in crystallized ginger). Family loved it! Looking forward to making it again, next time to your specs.
Thanks!
You’re welcome, Reba! Thank you for your review.
Taste is good but I would recommend running through a fine mesh siv after blending (unless you have a really good blender). I found the dressing to have quite a bit of fibrous bits. I also like the tip of adding additional honey to adjust the sweetness level.
Thank you for sharing how you made it, Courtney!
is it worth it to sub ground powder ginger for fresh ginger? if its not any good than should i just wait until i can get fresh ginger?
I would recommend fresh ginger here for best results.
This is FABULOUS! I could drink the dressing!
I’ve sever it to others and they e all asked for the recipe. Thank you for sharing!
Great to hear, Colleen!
I love carrot ginger dressing. Anytime I’ve had it at a Japanese restaurant it’s been lumpy because it’s supposed to be that way. Yoiu just need to mix it in and incorporate it into the lettuce, cherry tomatoes and cucumbers. I’ve made this dressing before a few times and most have come out pretty good. One of the best I’ve tried was from Nami Chen from her website JUST ONE COOK. Simple few ingredients. But I want to try yours now as I’ve tried others on the Net. I have a question though. How many side salads would this recipe cover? You say it is 1-1/2 cups so is that 12 ounces of dressing? Thanks.
Hi Kazy, You can use my Build-Your-Own Buddha Bowl as a reference!
The taste is very good but the texture is very lumpy and kind of lots of fibre from carrot and ginger. Is it suppose to be like that ?
Hi, It’s not a completely smooth consistency like a cream base or vinaigrette. It can also vary based on the food processor you are using.
I’ve made the Buddha Bowl that links to this recipe and the bowl is delicious however I feel like I’m missing out on this dressing. I am allergic to carrots, any suggestions for a substitute??
Hi! My Sunshine Salad Dressing could be a great option too!
Thanks. I also did this one and used Greek yogurt instead and it was still very good!
Super smooth texture and the right amount of creaminess. I prefer a little more zing and less sweet. My carrots were also very sweet and fresh and not dried out. I added a tsp of Tamari to offset it. Next time I’ll omit the honey if the carrots are super sweet again.
fyi – I used pre-minced ginger to save time and because I always have it handy and it worked fine.
I made this for my husband after he ran out of the dressing he ordered from Amazon. He said it was much better than the bottled version and that it tasted like dressing he used to get at a restaurant. He’s very pleased with this. I steamed the carrots and used an immersion blender because there’s less cleanup that way.
Great to hear it’s a hit, Cindy! I appreciate your review.
This dressing is insanely good!! I could eat bowls of this stuff with salad. I will admit I didn’t read the background story to this recipe so after I made it I immediately thought, “this tastes a lot like the salad dressing that you get at sushi restaurants.” Sure enough that was your inspiration. You definitely nailed it! I always wondered what it was and go figure, it’s carrot!
I’m glad you love it, Catherine! I appreciate your review.
wow, this was so good! I added a touch more honey because I was using this to make Asian veg buddha bowls (cabbage, farro, snap peas, edamame, microgreens, and avocado) – so delicious!
This dressing is tart, sweet and perfect over C & K Buddha bowl or any other salad. fabulous!!!!
I agree! Thank you for your review, Patricia.
Tastes wonderful! I would recommend using a lot less rice vinegar. Most dressings use 3 parts oil to 1 part vinegar, so this recipe with 1:1 is too tart, esp. with the addition of lime juice. But that is easily adjusted– everything else was perfect.
It is yummy, was a great success at our luncheon.
Great to hear, Sherry! Thank you for your review.
I love the flavor of this recipe but agree with some of the other comments. It didn’t blend smooth like yours did. I’m assuming my blender is the issue. It’s the carrots that don’t blend smooth for me and I was wondering if I steamed or blanched them whether this would solve the texture issue? I don’t want to change the flavor too much though because it’s delicious! Any thoughts?
Delicious! I found mine to be a little sweet for my liking, so I’ll just reduce the amount of honey next time, but to make this batch less sweet, what would you recommend I add? More lime juice? More ginger? Thanks!
You could try adding more of the juice or thin it out with some water if you like. Thank you for your feedback, Jaime!
Yum. Used less honey as we are sugar free usually.
Tip for people who can’t get it smooth – use knife sharpener to sharpen blade on blitzer.
Hi kate thinking of you and hoping the grief of loosing Cookieon earth plane is lessening.I just made the carrot ginger dressing too thick and I followed as precisely as I did. What to add maybe a bit of water or more oil plus a bit more vinegar
Delicious dressing! We used it on top of a cucumber pepper salad, rice, and broiled salmon!
Delicious dressing. You definitely need a high powered blender and I’d recommend making this in advance so the flavors can blend together. I made the viral cucumber pepper salad and used this recipe for the dressing and it came out incredible. This was a side dish for steak and roasted baby potatoes and even the potatoes dipped in the dressing was SO good.
I’m excited you enjoyed it, Chelsea! I appreciate your review.
This stuff is magical! Thanks for the great recipe. We served it with the buddha bowl (which also was great, especially the rice cooking method). Will definitely make it again.
Great to hear, Moni! I appreciate your review.
Delicious! I quadrupled the batch. Can i freeze it?
Hi! I haven’t tried it so I can’t say for sure. Sorry!
Just made this for the first time today. Absolutely delicious.
Thank you
I followed this exactly as written but it’s very frothy and not smooth and creamy. Any idea on what I might have done or how I could fix?
I’m sorry to hear that. Did you let it settle? Did you add the oil?