Honey Ginger Dressing
Honey ginger dressing is sweet, tangy and full of ginger flavor. It is a simple, versatile dressing that’s delicious on lettuce wraps, salads, rice bowls or as a marinade for nearly any protein.
- 1 Why I love this honey ginger dressing:
- 2 What you’ll need to make honey ginger dressing:
- 3 How to make honey salad dressing:
- 4 Equipment you will need:
- 5 How to use this honey ginger dressing:
- 6 Expert tips and variations:
- 7 FAQs
- 8 If you love this honey ginger sauce, you’ll love some of my other favorite dressings!
- 9 Honey Ginger Dressing
Why I love this honey ginger dressing:
As y’all know, I’m a sauce gal. If it ain’t saucy, I don’t want it. Sauces, spices and dressings are what bring meals to LIFE.
And once you start making homemade dressings and sauces, there’s no turning back. The flavor of a from-scratch dressing will outrank a storebought one ten times out of ten. Using a handful of simple ingredients from your fridge or pantry makes flavors sing in a way that commercially produced products simply cannot compete with.
Once you have a good base pantry with a few oils, types of vinegar, sweeteners like honey or maple syrup, flavor boosters like lime juice, lemon juice, garlic, ginger, Dijon mustard and spices you are READY TO GO. Possibilities are endless and you can make lots of healthy salad dressing recipes.
Also, honorable mention goes out to the fact that this dressing is full of healthy fats from avocado oil to help absorb valuable vitamins and minerals AND immune boosting and antimicrobial properties from the garlic, ginger and honey. Food is medicine y’all 🙂
What you’ll need to make honey ginger dressing:
Honey: a key flavor and the sweetening agent for the dressing.
Rice vinegar: vinegar gives dressings a lovely tang and rice vinegar gives this dressing a bit of an Asian flare.
Oil: I recommend a good-quality neutral flavored oil like avocado oil. You can also use canola oil or olive oil (although olive oil does not have as neutral of a taste as the others).
Ginger: a big ole knob of fresh ginger provides the primary flavor for this dressing. I recommend fresh ginger root or the ginger paste in a tube in the produce section of the grocery store near the fresh herbs.
Garlic: two cloves of fresh garlic provide flavor and just a little bite!
Salt and pepper: to elevate all the other flavors of course.
How to make honey salad dressing:
Peel the ginger and grate it using a microplane or the smallest holes of a box grater. Roughly chop the garlic.
Add all ingredients to a small blender or food processor and blend until creamy and smooth. Alternatively, you can whisk vigorously or shake the salad ingredients together in a jar or salad shaker. Blending will make the dressing more emulsified/cohesive but it is delicious either way.
Equipment you will need:
How to use this honey ginger dressing:
- In these amazing salmon lettuce wraps (pictured)
- As a marinade for grilled chicken, grilled salmon, shrimp, pork tenderloin or tofu
- As a dipping sauce for raw or roasted veggies
- Drizzled on fresh salads: kale salad, leafy green salads, quinoa salad, pasta salad, coleslaw, baby spinach salad or chicken salad
- Leave out the garlic and this is an AMAZING glaze for grilled fresh fruit like grilled pineapple or peaches
Expert tips and variations:
- You can simply whisk this dressing together, but for a really cohesive sauce I recommend using a food processor or small blender.
- Add more Asian flare by adding a tablespoon of soy sauce (or coconut aminos) and a teaspoon of toasted sesame oil.
- Make it spicy by adding a pinch of red pepper flakes, a teaspoon of hot sauce or finely diced red jalapeño peppers.
- Switch out the vinegar for a slightly different flavor profile. Other vinegars that will work are: white vinegar, apple cider vinegar or white wine vinegar.
- Add two tablespoons of plain Greek yogurt or mayo for a creamy honey ginger dressing!
FAQs
I love buying the tube of fresh ginger from the produce section (near the herbs) to keep in my fridge in case I run out of ginger root. In a pinch you could also sub ground ginger- start with ½ teaspoon and add more depending on your desired level of ginger flavor.
Any neutral oil will work- canola oil, grapeseed oil, soybean oil, sunflower oil and safflower oil are all neutral oils. (Avocado is my go-to because I like the ratio of monounsaturated fats and polyunsaturated fats better than some of the other oils).
Yes! Store the dressing in an airtight container in the fridge for up to 1-2 weeks.
If you love this honey ginger sauce, you’ll love some of my other favorite dressings!
If you try and like this recipe please don’t forget to leave a comment and star rating down below! If you love more lifestyle, behind the scenes and ‘eating in real life’ type of content come find me over on Instagram, @itsaflavorfullife, I love connecting with you all there!
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Honey Ginger Dressing
- Prep Time: 5 minutes
- Cook Time: N/A
- Total Time: 5 minutes
- Yield: 8 servings 1x
- Category: Dressings
- Method: Blend
- Cuisine: American
- Diet: Gluten Free
Description
Sweet, tangy and bursting with ginger flavor this honey ginger dressing is sure to become one of your favorite vinaigrettes!
Ingredients
- 1/2 cup avocado oil
- 1/3 cup rice vinegar
- 1/4 cup honey
- 2 inch knob ginger, peeled and freshly grated (or 1 heaping tablespoon ginger purée)
- 2 cloves garlic, roughly chopped
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1/2 teaspoon black pepper
Instructions
Grate the ginger on a microplane or the smallest holes of a box grater. Add all ingredients to a small blender or food processor and blend until creamy and smooth. Alternatively, you can whisk vigorously or shake the salad ingredients together in a jar or salad shaker. Blending will make the dressing more emulsified/cohesive but it is delicious either way.
Use in lettuce wraps, salads, rice bowls or as a marinade.
Store in an airtight container in the fridge for up to 1-2 weeks.
Notes
See above blog post for variation ideas, ways to use this dressing and answers to frequently asked questions.
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Nutrition
- Serving Size: 2 tablespoons
- Calories: 155
- Sugar: 8.7 g
- Sodium: 146 mg
- Fat: 13.6 g
- Carbohydrates: 9.2 g
- Fiber: 0.1 g
- Protein: 0.1 g
- Cholesterol: 0 mg
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