Happy Friday, everyone! I have the day off of work today (and if you do as well, I hope you’re enjoying it!), and I’m making sure to do exciting and fun activities. Like, make salad dressing. That’s exciting and fun… right? Answer: yes.
Especially when it’s as delicious as this Fresh Ginger and Honey Salad Dressing. It’s sweet, tangy, and loaded with the zesty, spicy taste of fresh ginger (which also happens to be extremely good for you), and it’s one of the simplest and easiest dressings to make from scratch.
Love salads? Good for you! Don’t love salads, but wish you would eat more of them because you know they are healthy? Well, this post is made for you. As they say, a salad is only as good as its dressing (actually, nobody says this, but I may have just coined a new phrase). And in my book, a homemade dressing ALWAYS beats a store-bought- not only because they taste better and are less expensive, but because they don’t contain processed ingredients and preservatives.
Make a batch of this on the weekend and enjoy fresh salads all week long (really, just throw this on some baby spinach, and there you have it! A salad!), or use some as a marinade for grilled chicken or veggies. It will stay fresh in the fridge for a month, leaving you plenty of time to use it up.
I have two suggestions for you when you make this recipe.
- Use a food processor
. Not only will it mince the fresh ginger for you, but it will also emulsify the dressing way better than whisking it by hand. Just add the ginger and process until finely minced, add the rest of the ingredients except for the oil and process together, and while the food processor is running, add the oil. You will get a perfectly emulsified dressing every time. Don’t own one? I have this Cuisinart 9-cup food processor, and love it. - Peel the ginger with a spoon. Never mind using a vegetable peeler to peel fresh ginger- it takes too much of the actual ginger off with the peel, and it’s hard to manage. A spoon takes the peel off only, and is much easier.
. Not only will it mince the fresh ginger for you, but it will also emulsify the dressing way better than whisking it by hand. Just add the ginger and process until finely minced, add the rest of the ingredients except for the oil and process together, and while the food processor is running, add the oil. You will get a perfectly emulsified dressing every time. Don’t own one? I have If you like this recipe, be sure to check out my Miso Sesame Ginger Dressing and Homemade Ranch. Enjoy!
Fresh Ginger and Honey Salad Dressing
Ingredients
- 2 tablespoons fresh grated ginger (from about a 2" piece)
- 1/4 cup honey
- 2 teaspoons kosher salt
- 1 teaspoon black pepper
- 1/3 cup rice vinegar see notes
- 1 cup extra-virgin olive oil
Instructions
- Mince ginger in a food processor (you can also do this by hand).
- Add to the food processor the honey (1/4 cup), salt (2 teaspoons), pepper (1 teaspoon), and rice vinegar (1/3 cup); pulse to combine (if not using a food processor, whisk these ingredients together in a bowl).
- While food processor is running, add oil gradually (or add oil to bowl while whisking), in order to emulsify the dressing.
- Store in an airtight container or jar for up to one month in the fridge.
Notes
- Red wine, apple cider or other vinegars may also be used in place of rice vinegar.
- The provided nutrition information does not include any added sodium from seasoning to taste, any optional ingredients, and it does not take brands into account. Feel free to calculate it yourself using this calculator or by adding the recipe to Yummly.
Nutrition
Nutrition Information Disclaimer
The provided nutrition information is my best estimate and reflects one serving of the recipe (total servings indicated at top of recipe card). It does not include any added sodium from seasoning to taste, any optional ingredients, and it does not take brands into account. I use an automatic API to calculate this information. Feel free to calculate it yourself using one of these tools:
Karin
Hi Elizabeth,
Do you have an approximate weight for two inches of ginger? And could you substitute with ginger paste?
Elizabeth Lindemann
You can definitely substitute with ginger paste! Great question – I should have included more specific measurements (and will update the recipe card now). 1 inch of ginger is about 1 tablespoon after it’s grated. I updated the recipe and also used the metric converter included on my recipe card plugin – looks like it’s 14 grams. All that said – the exact amount doesn’t matter much for this recipe, so don’t worry about it too much! Hope that helps!
Nina
Excellent!! I made half of a recipe and it turned out great! Wonderful fresh ginger but I used Avocado oil and it was just delicious!
Elizabeth Lindemann
So glad you liked it!
Amber
I made this for our Vegi and shrimp spring rolls tonight, and It was fantastic! My daughter is super restricted in eating and this actually worked with just changing the rice vinegar to apple cider vinegar. Thank you so much! I even printed a hard copy!!
Elizabeth
So happy you liked it! :-)
Leslie
Hi Elizabeth. This dressing looks amazing! I can’t wait to try it and make it for friends too! Happy Easter!
Leslie :)
Elizabeth
Hope you like it, Leslie! :)