Japanese Carrot-Ginger Dressing

• Ingre­di­ents:
• ¹⁄₂ cup veg­etable oil
• ¹⁄₄ cup rice vinegar
• 2 tbsp. soy sauce
• 2 tsp. sugar
• 1 ¹⁄₂ tsp. fresh grat­ed ginger
• 1 medi­um peeled and chopped carrot
• 2 tbsp. chopped onion
• Salt and pepper

In a food proces­sor, com­bine all ingre­di­ents except salt and pep­per. Pulse until it’s all well-mixed (but not puréed!).

Salt and pep­per to taste. Try with fresh chopped cucum­bers or steamed veggies.

Ginger Like a BOSS!

Using fresh gin­ger can be a has­sle, and if you’re mak­ing, say, stir-fry or gin­ger­bread you can get away with ground gin­ger from the spice rack.

If you’re mak­ing a dress­ing or mari­nade or remoulade, on the oth­er hand, it’s well worth the extra effort to use fresh ginger.

Look for plump, unblem­ished roots. Skip wrin­kled or gnarled roots; they’re usu­al­ly fibrous and nasty. 

Han­dle fresh gin­ger like it’s a hot pep­per: Wear dis­pos­able gloves or wash your hands after prepar­ing it. And for the love of Cthul­hu, don’t touch your face or rub your eyes!

Break or cut off a piece and peel it like a car­rot. If you’re cook­ing with the gin­ger, slice it thin and then cut it into strips. If it’s a dress­ing or some oth­er recipe where you’re not cook­ing it, grate it nice and small or even use a microplane grater. No mat­ter how you’re using it you don’t want to bite into a chunk of gin­ger by mis­take. Trust me on this.