Carrot salads
- rosemary
- May 30
- 5 min read
Updated: May 31
"Creative freedom is a huge carrot." Adam McKay
I don't think Adam McKay meant, what I have taken to mean from the above quote. I think he meant 'carrot' in the sense of enticement. What I have taken it to mean is the vast number of creative things you can do foodwise with carrots. So I'm beginning another mini series on what you can do with carrots. Well they are always there in your vegetable drawer aren't they and they can be eaten in so many ways? And yet we take them for granted.
I'm beginning with salad because of this short video from a young lady called Cassy Yeung Money on TikTok. Gee these TikTok ladies all look the same don't they? Wearing a hoodie while you cook? Well barely cook in this case. And look at those fingernails! I was directed to it by Deb Perelman in her Smitten Kitchen newsletter this week, and I have to say, that the finished result actually looked pretty good. Initially I think I was just attracted by the wider shape of the carrots, but as I watched and saw what she added I also thought that it might actually taste pretty good - spring onions, garlic, sesame seeds, sesame oil, rice vinegar and spicy chilli crisp. No measurements -
"I don't measure any of this, just - you know - with the heart," she says and having told us that carrots are really good for your hormones (are they?), she says, "So we're going to eat our skin care." It's just over a minute long - watch it to see how the young live, talk and create.
And it is just carrots, a few spring onions and a dressing, but I guess you could fiddle and add other stuff - other vegetables, herbs, nuts ... But really why would you? Sometimes we mess with things too much.
Most don't mess with the classic carrot salad too much - French grated carrot salad - the stuff you can buy by the bucket load in your local hypermarket or specialist traiteur in France. This version - very classic and endorsed by his French partner Raoul, is from David Lebovitz. I have made this in the past and pronounced it absolutely delicious - amazingly so really - but I cannot say whose recipe I used. I have just checked Elizabeth David's books and although she talks about it here and there, I cannot find an actual recipe, even though I could have sworn that it was she who taught me how to do it. I shall have to have a more careful look I think.
Maybe it was Jane Grigson's amazingly brief recipe in her Vegetable Book:
"Grated raw carrots, dressed with an olive oil and lemon juice vinaigrette, and plenty of chopped herbs - either green fennel or tarragon or chives and parsley mixed. Chill well and drain off any surplus liquid before serving."
Or maybe it was Robert Carrier somewhere in one of his books. And those carrots need to be grated very finely. It looks to me as if most of the ones I saw on the net - including David Lebovitz's had been put through a food processor, or some kind of julienne slicer - a mandoline perhaps. Me - I grated it on the smallest hole on my stand-up grater - with the end result looking a bit like the one above.
I'm not sure whether Nigel goes for this one because somewhere he says:
"I reckon you need more, much more, than a classic oil and vinegar dressing to make a root vegetable salad worth considering." Nigel Slater
Maybe he'd be happy with the lemon juice and herbs.
The other classic is the Moroccan carrot salad. This version shown here is from Ottolenghi - Spicy Moroccan carrot salad - which looks remarkably similar to one of Robert Carrier's versions - he has three or four in his seminal book on Moroccan food. The carrots are cooked, there are a variety of spices added to the dressing of olive oil and preserved lemon is often included, as well as the coriander sprinkle.
Travelling eastwards across the world, and passing Italy, Greece, Turkey, all of whom doubtless have their own versions of a carrot salad we come to the Middle East for which I am going to offer you two examples - one from Ottolenghi (of course) which numerous people seem to think is great - Carrot salad with yoghurt and cinnamon (he has others) and Greg Malouf with his glorious looking and sounding and very impressive Honey-roasted carrots with dates, dandelions & Moroccan dressing, although it should be noted that the writer of A Bowl of Sugar who provides it online, substituted rocket for dandelions.
Further east still in India they have a dish called Kosambri which combines the carrots with grated coconut and dal dressed with oil, lemon juice, mustard seeds and chillies and the East Asians, like our original TikTok creator seem to like dressings with soy sauce, rice vinegar, and sesame, with carrot and cucumber being a favourite combination.
I'll end with Jamie - who lists 24 different carrot salads, and Nigel who, back in 2007 said:
"I have no idea what made me decide to use carrots as a salad - I never make carrot salad. It's a bit too Seventies ... Since then there has been no stopping me."
Nigel has a few recipes, but I've chosen just two. The first shown here is A salad of carrot thinnings, which probably means you won't be able to make it, because 'thinnings' are tiny carrots that you remove before they are fully grown from your vegetable garden, so that the others have space to grow. In a way it's silly to feature this, becaus all it is is carrot thinnings and small beetroots, cooked in a shallow pan in water, drained and then dressed with a lemon juice and red vinegar vinaigrette, plus coriander leaves. But I loved the photo. The second is a rather Australian sounding and appropriate Mango and carrot salad with chilli tomato dressing
So Jamie - maybe the salad king. Three examples: Winter salad; Roast carrot and avocado salad and Carrot and grain salad which seems to be a popular one.
Carrots are so versatile. I have dealt with just one 'dish' here - salads, and even with just this there is an almost endless variety of solutions. And you could do worse than beginning with TikTok.
YEARS GONE BY
May 30
2023 - Cornbread - I'm confused
2021 - Ordinary and exceptional
2020 - Deleted
2017 - Nothing
I like raw carrots or ones buried in stews but carrot salads? Hmmm! 🫣