If you are looking for a different, exciting, super healthy, and refreshing condiment for your salads and veggies you are gonna love this carrot ginger dressing. It’s bright, fresh, light, sweet, zesty, and tangy. The combination of ginger and carrot is spot on. And it makes any dish look beautiful thanks to its brilliant orange color. And the best thing is that as opposed to many other dressings, this one is also incredibly healthy, thanks to the carrots and ginger.To make it, you just need to throw the ingredients in a blender and blend until completely smooth. Then taste and adjust acidity and sweetness based on your preferences. Since carrots and ginger contain quite a bit of fiber, it’s best to make this recipe in a high-speed or power blender. With a Vitamix for instance, it turns out silky smooth! We think it’s going to become one of your favorite homemade dressings.The dressing is so tasty that you might end up just drinking it out of the blender jar. It’s kind of like a sweet, savory, and zesty smoothie-like condiment to drizzle onto your favorite meals.This recipe is Japanese-inspired, and if you’ve ever been to a Japanese restaurant in the US you might be familiar with those flavors. Let’s see how it’s made!
Ingredients
Carrots: the main ingredient. They add sweetness and color when blended. Ginger: peeled fresh ginger is recommended. It adds a tangy, zesty taste to the dressing.Lemon juice: you can make this carrot ginger salad dressing with lemon juice or orange juice. The lemon juice makes a fresher, brighter dressing. The orange juice makes it sweeter. You can replace lemon juice with rice vinegar or apple cider vinegar for a bolder, more acidic flavor.Oil: extra virgin olive oil makes the dressing rich. If you like a more neutral flavor you can substitute a more neutral oil like regular olive oil, vegetable oil, grapeseed oil, avocado oil, or canola oil, for the extra virgin olive oil. In addition to the olive oil, you could add a teaspoon of sesame oil if you’d like to give the dressing a Japanese spin. We like to add sesame oil if we are serving this dressing with Asian-inspired dishes, such as a side salad for a vegan sushi dinner. We leave the sesame oil out if we are serving this condiment with western-inspired dishes, such as simple grilled veggies or as a dip for air-fried vegetables.Water: to help the blender turn the carrots into a smooth sauce. Add more water if you’d like your dressing more liquid.Maple syrup: to add a little sweetness. Agave syrup or brown sugar are also good here. We use those instead of honey to keep the dressing vegan.Salt: to bring all flavors together. Sea salt and kosher salt are best. You can also add a touch of black pepper if you like, but that’s optional.Other ingredients: in some carrot ginger dressing recipes you might find onion, soy sauce, and white miso in the ingredients list. After some testing, we decided to leave those ingredients out so that you can use this condiment more widely.
Serving suggestions
As a salad dressing
On grilled vegetables
Make it a meal
As a dip with raw veggies
Portion the dressing in smaller bowls, then serve as a dip for an appetizer with crunchy veggies. Try it with red cabbage, fennel, celery, red pepper, and even carrots. It’s a great way to make kids and picky adults eat more fresh veggies because this thing just makes anything taste delicious. Wash, peel, and chop the carrots. Then to a blender, add carrots, olive oil, freshly squeezed lemon juice without the seeds, water, peeled and chopped up ginger, maple syrup, salt, and optionally the sesame oil. Blend at high speed for about 2 minutes, or until the dressing is completely smooth. Taste the dressing and adjust for salt, maple syrup, or lemon juice. Add more water if you want a more liquid dressing. Pour from the blender into a bowl and serve with your favorite veggies.
Easy tofu salad and replace tahini dressing with ginger carrot sauce Red cabbage salad for a rainbow-colored salad serving Quinoa chickpea salad with fresh and crispy vegetables 20-min chickpea salad as an easy lunch idea
It’s so good that you can either drizzle it on top of the grilled veggies or use it as a dip. As you can see in the picture, we tried it on grilled beets and it was incredible. We grilled pre-steamed beets, arranged them on some fresh arugula, then added toasted pine nuts, fresh thyme, some salt and pepper, sesame seeds, and plenty of carrot ginger dressing on top. Best side dish ever! If you want something even tastier, make a salad with grilled vegetables, such as:
Grilled zucchini and grilled cherry tomatoes Crispy grilled asparagus Tender grilled eggplant
The smokey and slightly bitter charring on the veggies is the perfect match to the sweet, tangy flavor of the dressing. This is a must-try combination.
Tofu (try grilled tofu, air-fried tofu, marinated tofu, or fried tofu) Toss in some legumes such as beans, chickpeas, and lentils.
You can also add healthy carbohydrates with grains or pseudo-grains like:
Couscous, rice, barley, quinoa, millet, and buckwheat to turn the salad into a grain bowl. Here’s an idea for a nutritious vegan barley salad.
More Sauce Recipes
Storage
Vegan basil pesto: ultra-creamy and indulgent Easy mustard dressing: easy and a perfect pairing with salads Tahini dressing: fits with pasta salad and fresh veggies Chili oil dressing: infuses soups, salads, and pasta Cilantro lime dressing: a refreshing and vibrant green dressing Italian salsa verde: perfect with those grilled veggies Green goddess dressing: creamy, herby, and bring bold flavor to most veggies
For more condiment ideas, check out our dressing and sauces category page.
35 Healthy Pasta Recipes
30 Easy Tofu Recipes
How to Cook Asparagus (Easy Meals)
