I learned something odd this week. Did you know that pickled ginger you put on your sushi often contains aspartame? Seriously. I was reading the back of a carrot ginger salad dressing bottle and right there in the ingredients: aspartame. I took to the google machine and found out aspartame is used to pickle ginger in place of sugar. I would rather ingest the extra calories from sugar, thank you very much. So in an effort to avoid franken-food I'll be steering clear of the pretty pink mountain on my sushi plate, and will be making carrot ginger dressing at home from now on.
I paired this dressing with a simple salad of mixed baby greens, tomatoes, almonds and dried cranberries. Go ahead and plop it on the salad of your dreams or drizzled over some roasted vegetables (especially asparagus!).
Ingredients
2 large carrots, chopped into rough bite sized pieces
2 generous tablespoons fresh ginger root, roughly chopped
3 tablespoons cold water
2 tablespoons sesame oil
2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar
1 tablespoon soy sauce
1 small pinch sugar
Method
Place carrots and ginger in a blender or food processor and blend until you get a fine orange colored pulp. Scrape down sides and add in all the rest of the ingredients. Blend until smooth.
Store any leftovers covered in the refrigerator.
Image © Yvonne Penzakov for BitchBuzz.com