Crunchy Greens With Carrot-Ginger Dressing

By Eric Kim

Published July 14, 2022

  • Bobbi Lin for The New York Times. Food Stylist: Eugene Jho. Prop Stylist: Christina Lane.
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Total Time
10 minutes
Rating
5(1,808)
Comments
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This recipe draws inspiration from the sunny-orange flavor of green salads with carrot-ginger dressing at Japanese American restaurants. The pulpy, aromatic dressing may be the star, but a salad is only as good as its lettuce. After washing and thoroughly spin-drying the greens in a salad spinner (alternatively, you can pat them dry in a clean kitchen towel), one way to maximize their crunch before adding the dressing is to refrigerate them, covered, for at least 30 minutes. Little Gem has a sweet, juicy sturdiness, but regular packaged mixed greens, baby spinach and chopped romaine hearts work, too.

Featured in: 20 Easy Salads for Hot Summer Days

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Ingredients

Yield:2 to 4 servings

  • 1 small carrot, peeled and coarsely chopped

  • 1 (1-inch) piece fresh ginger, peeled and coarsely chopped

  • ¼ cup extra-virgin olive oil

  • 2 tablespoons rice vinegar

  • 1 ½ teaspoons soy sauce

  • 1 tablespoon granulated sugar

  • 1 teaspoon onion powder

  • Salt

  • 2 to 4 heads Little Gem lettuce, leaves separated, or 1 romaine heart, chopped

  • 1 cup loosely packed fresh mint leaves

Ingredient Substitution Guide
Nutritional analysis per serving (2 to 4 servings)

10 grams carbs; 166 calories; 10 grams monosaturated fat; 2 grams polyunsaturated fat; 2 grams saturated fat; 14 grams fat; 3 grams fiber; 366 milligrams sodium; 2 grams protein; 5 grams sugar

Note: The information shown is Edamam’s estimate based on available ingredients and preparation. It should not be considered a substitute for a professional nutritionist’s advice.

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Preparation

  1. Step 1

    Make the dressing: In a food processor, purée the carrot, ginger, olive oil, rice vinegar, soy sauce, sugar, onion powder, a pinch of salt and 1 tablespoon cold water until as smooth as possible, 1 to 2 minutes.

  2. Step 2

    Dress the salad: Place the lettuce leaves in a large serving bowl. Add a couple of tablespoons of the dressing and toss, then add more as needed to evenly coat. The salad should be lightly dressed, not drowned; don’t use every drop of dressing if you don’t need to. Taste for seasoning, adjusting with more salt as desired. Top the salad with the mint leaves and serve immediately.

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Ratings

5 out of 5
1,808 user ratings
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Comments

Michael Sierchio

As my name would suggest, I'm Italian, and while I love olive oil it's simply the wrong choice for this dressing. A neutral oil with a dash of roasted sesame oil will take it home.

Morgan

The proportions are way off on this recipe. You’ll want to make 4x as much dressing so you can drink 75 percent of it straight from the bowl of your food processor and still have enough left over for your salad.

haleyk

recommend making this with a real onion instead of powdered -- helps add a natural sweetness so you can cut down on sugar. we make this with or without the oil and eat it on everything! stores well and the more ginger the better

KHNY

My dressing tasted good but was not bright orange. I used tamari as I'm celiac and have to be gluten free. Is tamari darker than regular soy sauce, making the colour of the dressing a little darker? Also I used more ginger than required, more carrot and less sugar.

Long Beach, CA baker

I made the recipe as written. I thought it was ‘OK’. Probably won’t make again.

SH

I made a few adjustments. Microwaved the carrot as I used an immersion blender, added 1/2 a peeled Asian pear so no sugar and a small piece of yellow onion, used 3T avo oil and scant 1T sesame oil, subbed lime juice for the vinegar (cannot tolerate), 1t wh miso paste instead of soy sauce. Thinned it a bit with 2T ACV/green tea mix that I had in the frig. It was frothy and divine, just the way I remember carrot-sesame-ginger dressing tasting in the 60s at the Japan pavilion at the Worlds Fair!

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