Japanese Ginger Dressing Recipe
by Sommer Collier — last updated on Oct 10, 2025 
My Japanese ginger dressing recipe is bright, zesty, and packed with fresh flavor. I blend fresh ginger, soy sauce, rice vinegar, and oil into a smooth, restaurant-style dressing that’s ready in minutes. This easy recipe is perfect for salads, marinades, or dipping sauces.
We love our local Japanese hibachi restaurant. Hibachi literally means “fire bowl” in Japanese, and the chefs take great care to provide both a delicious dining experience and a tantalizing live cooking show as food is prepared on a large, hot, flaming grill in front of diners. Before the flames get going, the first course of the meal is traditionally a bowl of Japanese clear soup and simple green salad topped with a fresh and bright carrot and ginger dressing. It is by far my kids’ favorite, and I love to see how happy they are to gobble up every bit of veggies that the dressing has touched! Want to see that same enthusiasm for salad in your home? After many tests and tweaks, I have perfectly replicated that slightly sweet, tangy, incredibly craveable taste with my easy and healthy homemade Japanese ginger salad dressing recipe!
Christine – ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ I just made this yesterday, so easy and it is delicious! Definitely will make this again, I made 2 batches and gave one to a friend and they loved it as well. So glad I found this recipe!
Table of Contents
Sommer’s Recipe Highlights
- Simple Ingredients – I use a handful of basic Asian-based pantry staples like rice vinegar and soy sauce, but the fresh veggies are the star of this Japanese salad dressing. There is nothing complicated here, and everything you need can be found at nearly any grocery store.
- Easy to Make – This is the perfect recipe for using your handy blender. I toss everything in there, push a button, and in 10 minutes, I have the most deliciously refreshing salad dressing to drizzle over crisp romaine or iceberg lettuce.
- Diet-Friendly – My classic Japanese ginger salad dressing recipe is naturally gluten-free (check that your soy sauce is GF), dairy-free, nut-free, vegetarian, and vegan. So it’s a great option for hosting people with food sensitivities, without lacking any flavor.
Key Ingredients and Tips
- Veggies – I use peeled and chopped carrots, white onion or shallots, celery, and garlic. Try to make the pieces as uniform in size as possible. Although everything is going to just get blended together, having the chunks of veggies start at about the same size makes everything blend evenly in the same amount of time.
- Rice vinegar – It really is the best for making this dressing. However, if you don’t have rice vinegar, you can use slightly less white vinegar or apple cider vinegar. White vinegar has a more sour taste, so I use it sparingly.
- Canola oil – Otherwise, use any neutral oil like vegetable oil or avocado oil.
- Fresh grated ginger – Fresh ginger is key! Don’t use the pickled or powdered kind.
- Granulated sugar – This will balance all the flavors and add just a hint of sweetness.
- Soy sauce – A good quality low-sodium soy sauce will give a bit of umami goodness! But you can swap it with gluten-free coconut aminos or low-sodium soy sauce, depending on your dietary needs.
How To Make
Find the full ingredient proportions, detailed instructions, storage tips, and a video tutorial in the printable form at the bottom of the post.
Prep – I first chop the celery, then peel and chop the carrots and onion. Into the blender jar they all go!
Add – Then I add the remaining ingredients to the blender… Rice vinegar, canola oil, freshly grated ginger, sugar, soy sauce, and a garlic clove.
Blend – I cover the blender with the lid (obviously, this is very important) and run it on high speed for a good minute or two. The dressing puree should be rather thin and not entirely smooth. But you can adjust the thickness by simply blending more to make it thinner, or add more carrots to make the dressing slightly thicker.
Taste, add more salt and pepper. Then cover and store in the refrigerator.
Expert Tips
- For more umami flavor, add a little bit of miso paste! Cut back on the soy sauce in that case, though, since both are high in sodium!
- Instead of soy sauce, you can use coconut aminos for less sodium.
- You can use rice vinegar (AKA rice wine vinegar), white wine vinegar, or apple cider vinegar. Any of these will add a good amount of acid to the dressing. Just cut back a little on the stronger vinegars, so the flavor is not too potent.
- If you don’t have a blender, you can use a food processor to make your homemade hibachi dressing. However, it might be a little bit chunkier.
Storage Notes
Like my homemade yum yum sauce, this Japanese dressing recipe is terrific to make ahead and have in the refrigerator throughout the week. I store the dressing in a mason jar, or in another airtight container, and keep it in the fridge for up to 4 days. Make sure to shake before serving!
Serving Suggestions
I often use this dressing on romaine or iceberg lettuce for a classic Japanese restaurant-style side salad with hibachi rice. I suggest drizzling the smooth, zesty dressing over an Asian-inspired salad, grain bowls, or shredded cabbage slaw. It also makes a fantastic sauce for dumplings, a sushi bake, fresh or roasted veggies!
My ginger dressing recipe can also be used as a marinade for proteins like chicken, shrimp, or tofu. It’s a fabulous, unique flavor that you really oughta try!
Frequently Asked Questions
Easily make this as a paleo-friendly salad dressing recipe by substituting honey for the granulated sugar, coconut liquid aminos for the soy sauce, and your favorite light-flavored oil – like avocado oil – instead of the canola oil. Keep in mind that using honey will make the recipe not vegan-friendly. Swap the honey for agave to make a paleo and vegan dressing!
No, you don’t want to do that. Ginger really is the star flavor in this Japanese ginger salad dressing…I mean, it’s right there in the name. So it’s essential that you use freshly grated ginger right from the root.
Not to worry! It’s totally normal for vinegar-based dressings to separate in the fridge. Give the sealed container a good shaking and everything will blend together again.
Help Me Spread the Word about this Fabulous Free Recipe! Sharing this recipe link on Pinterest and Facebook is super impactful, and I greatly appreciate it! Find the share buttons below the recipe form.
More Salad Recipes
Japanese Ginger Salad Dressing
Video
Ingredients
- 1 cup carrots roughly chopped
- ½ cup onion peeled and roughly chopped
- ¼ cup celery roughly chopped
- ½ cup rice vinegar
- 1/3 cup canola oil
- 3 tablespoons fresh grated ginger
- 2 tablespoons granulated sugar or honey
- 1-2 tablespoons soy sauce (I always buy GF and low sodium.)
- 1 small garlic clove
Instructions
- Roughly chop all the produce. Place in the blender.
- Add all other ingredients to the blender. If you are sensitive to sodium, start with 1 tablespoon of soy sauce. You can always add more if needed.
- Cover the blender and turn on high. Puree until smooth.
- Taste, then add more soy sauce if desired.
- Refrigerate until ready to serve.
It’s ok, but it doesn’t taste like the restaurant. I think the Celery threw off the flavor. Will make next time without it.
I absolutely LOVE this dressing! I do agree with a post above believing there was some sort of citrus involved in the actually restaurant but this is so good I don’t even care.
This recipe exceeded my expectations. Absolutely delicious – I’m so happy to be able to eat this as often as I want! Thank you!
Great recipe! Have you tried freezing the dressing?
Sooooo good! Thank you!
Absolutely delicious! Punchy and Full of flavor.
Thanks so much for the recipe.
I made this exactly as stated, but doubled the recipe as i was serving 6 people and wanted enough. It was PERFECT and as good, if not better than what’s served in Japanese restaurants. I minced all the veggies in a food processor, then added all ingredients together in the blender. I poured it into a hurricane glass to place on the table. It looked amazing and was easily poured onto our salads. Definitely a new fresh fave and simple to make!!
This is a wonderful recipe. I followed it as specified. I love that everything can get dumped in a blender or processor and you have a delicious, homemade recipe in seconds. So easy to make and so delicious. To me, it was even better than what I have tasted in Japanese restaurants.
Delicious! My nine year old and I made this as written except we used shallot because we didn’t have onion, and added about 1/2 tsp of miso. Tastes like the salads I love in Japanese restaurants. Thank you for sharing this recipe!!
maybe next time stick to the ingredients given. Thanks
Recipe would be better without the huge intro that only the author cares about. We don’t need to know your entire life story, but thanks.
So incredibly rude, unnecessary and not helpful to anyone in any way.
Try the dressing. It might help with your bitterness.
I, for one, love her stories. So often, they set the recipe up so that we know what to expect before we start cooking. Also, I like traveling around (vicariously) with Sommer. she serves up wonderful anecdotes with her wonderful recipes.
Thank you for always sharing, Sommer.
Tried it with the rice vineger, SO acidic.
One of our favorite dressings when we get take out! Never knew it could be so easy to make at home! Just perfect!
Yummy! This is so delicious. Can’t wait to have it on more salads this summer.