Soy Sesame Raw Carrot Salad

This refreshing raw carrot salad with soy sesame dressing comes together so quickly and easily with a handful of ingredients. Crisp-tender carrots tossed with green onions, sesame seeds, and a flavorful homemade dressing, this is the perfect spring or summer salad!

If you’ve seen my quick pickled carrots, edamame chickpea salad, or mason jar salads, then you’re probably familiar with my love for ribboning carrots. It’s thin, beautiful, and so easy to prepare!

 

Why You’ll Love This Recipe

• It’s quick! Grab a vegetable peeler and swipe-swipe-swipe! And just like that, your carrots are ready to be dressed. It doesn’t get any quicker than that.
• You only need a handful of ingredients. Most of these ingredients are kitchen staples, so you can make this without having to run to the store. It’s perfect for last-minute entertaining or a last-minute picnic/potluck dish.
• Carrots are the main ingredient for this carrot salad. Carrots are a healthy addition to your daily meals, so make this for your dinner tonight if you need a veggie-based side dish!

Ingredients You’ll Need

• carrots — to make carrot ribbons, peel the carrots with a vegetable peeler, then using the same motion, keep peeling the carrot (rotating it every so often when one side gets too thin to hold) until you have a bundle of ribbons!
• soy sauce — I use low-sodium soy sauce. You can always add a pinch of salt if you find the raw salad not to be salty enough.
• sesame oil — depending on how you’d like the salad to taste, you can use pure or toasted sesame oil. This is a great recipe to use toasted sesame oil as nothing is being cooked and the nutty flavor will be more prominent.
• maple syrup — for some sweetness. You can also use honey.
• rice vinegar — make sure the buy unseasoned rice vinegar. The vinegar helps cut through the dressing and give it a bit of a tang.
• mince garlic — please skip the minced garlic sold in jars! They have a slightly bitter flavor to them due to the preservatives they’re packed in. If you want ready-to-go minced garlic, check out my post on freezing minced garlic.
• sesame seeds — make sure you’re using toasted sesame seeds for the best flavor. This is the bottle in my pantry!
• green onions — the more, the merrier.

How to Make Raw Carrot Salad

• In a small bowl, mix together the soy sauce, sesame oil, maple syrup, rice vinegar, and minced garlic. You can also shake it all together in a mason jar.

• In a large mixing bowl or salad bowl, add the ribboned carrots, toasted sesame seeds, green onions, and salad dressing.
• Toss well to combine.  If you have the time, cover and let the salad chill in the fridge for 10 minutes to let the flavors meld together before serving.

Recipe Tips and Notes

• Feel free to adjust the dressing to your liking! Sometimes, I grate some ginger into it or add a squirt of sriracha for some heat.
• You can also use a mandolin to make the carrot ribbons but I find a vegetable peeler to be quickest.
• I love how the carrot ribbons can twirl like pasta noodles, but you can always use a grater or a y peeler to julienne the carrots.

Make Ahead Tips

• Meal prep: store the carrot salad in an airtight container for up to 4 days in the fridge. If the dressing pools at the bottom of the container, make sure to give it all a good shake before serving.
• Freezer: skip freezing this recipe!

Serving Suggestions

This raw carrot salad is perfect for a summer bbq! Serve it alongside my grilled chicken legs, grilled drumsticks, grilled lemon pepper chicken breasts, or grilled buffalo chicken breasts!

It’s also perfect as a meal prep! Pack it with my ginger honey ground pork, ground chicken and broccoli stir fry, crispy oven baked chicken cutlets, or almond crusted salmon.

More Side Dishes to Try

• Silken Tofu Recipe
• Seasoned Spinach
• Purple Cabbage Slaw
• Spicy Fish Cakes

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