This Sesame Ginger Dressing is creamy, tangy, and perfect on salads or roasted veggies! The creaminess (and a lot of the sesame flavor) comes from tahini, which is almost like peanut butter made from sesame seeds. So good! It’s paired up with bright and refreshing ginger, plus lime, mirin, soy sauce, and a few other goodies to give it an amazing depth and contrast of flavor.

I originally posted the recipe for this dressing in my Roasted Kabocha Squash recipe, but felt like it deserved a home of its own on the blog – enjoy!

serve it with:

Roasted Kabocha Squash

Kabocha squash is roasted until tender and paired with this zesty sesame ginger dressing – a perfect complement to the squash’s creamy sweetness.

recipe

Ingredients and Substitutions

Here’s what you’ll need to make this Sesame Ginger Dressing at home:

• Tahini – If you didn’t know, tahini is actually just ground up sesame seeds and has the texture of a smooth natural nut butter. Most commercial brands of tahini can be poured relatively easily once the oil is reincorporated by stirring. Using tahini as the high volume, creamy element in the dressing really helps build that sesame flavor without getting too overpowering like can happen with too much sesame oil. You could use peanut butter here instead, but I really like the sesame flavor of tahini.
• Lime – The juice and the zest, please! I love the acidity and freshness of the lime to help balance out some of the deeper umami flavors in the other dressing ingredients. You can even use a lemon if you forgot to pick up a lime at the store.
• Ginger – Obviously another banner ingredient for this recipe that you don’t want to skip or replace. I love the spicy zing of ginger! You can peel and grate it yourself or use those convenient ginger paste tubes you find in the produce section. 
• Mirin – If you haven’t tried it before, mirin is a lightly sweet Japanese rice wine that is a perfect complement to soy sauce. If you can’t find it or don’t want to buy it, try using rice vinegar and 1/2 tsp of sugar per tablespoon of rice vinegar used.
• Soy sauce – Helps to both deepen the flavor of the dressing and adds volume. Be sure to use a low sodium version so things don’t get too salty!
• Sesame oil – This is where the sesame flavor really gets hammered home for the dressing. You can use toasted or untoasted, but be sure to taste test before adding more! I’d say the 2 tsp the recipe calls for is the bare minimum to get the flavor to shine through, but if you want more, just add it cautiously 1/2-1 tsp at a time, continuing to taste as you go.
• Honey – Just a touch of honey helps round out the flavors of the dressing. You could also use maple syrup, brown sugar, or regular granulated sugar.

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Recipe

5 from 1 vote

Sesame Ginger Dressing

Prep: 5 minutes mins

Total: 5 minutes mins

Servings: 4 servings

Rate Pin Print

Sesame Ginger Dressing is perfect on salads or roasted veggies! Bright ginger is paired with creamy tahini, soy sauce, and lime.

Servings: 4 servings

Ingredients

• ▢ 1/4 cup tahini, (2 fl oz)
• ▢ 1 lime, juiced and zested
• ▢ 2 tbsp freshly grated ginger or ginger paste, (1 fl oz)
• ▢ 2 tbsp mirin, (1 fl oz)
• ▢ 1 tbsp low sodium soy sauce, (0.5 fl oz)
• ▢ 2 tsp sesame oil, (9 grams)
• ▢ 1 tsp honey, (7 grams)

Instructions

• Whisk or shake all dressing ingredients together until smooth.

Tips & Tricks

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Nutrition Information

Serving: 2tbsp, Calories: 80kcal (4%), Carbohydrates: 6g (2%), Protein: 2g (4%), Fat: 6g (9%), Sodium: 92mg (4%), Potassium: 51mg (1%), Fiber: 1g (4%), Sugar: 3g (3%)