The Carrot, Not the Stick — Moroccan Carrot Salad 

I never thought I could get excited about carrot salad. You probably feel the same way. I liked carrot and raisin salad as a kid — especially the raisins, which I sometimes picked out, leaving the carrots behind. But then I tasted carrot salad in Marrakesh, and knew I was tasting greatness.

Carrots are sturdy root vegetables that grow almost everywhere and don’t get their due. 

They’re crazy with antioxidants like anthocynanin (that’s the antioxidant in the carrots’ orange pigment) vitamin C, B and A, all of which give us radiant skin you can see and excellent body support you can’t see. The World Carrot Museum backs me up on this.

Carrots, usually recipe bit players, get to play lead here. They’re tossed with: 

• cumin
• paprika
• lemon juice
• olive oil, just enough to help bind the spices to the carrots

We’re still talking carrots — and only carrots — but the few spices lift it from meh to, well, Moroccan.  These few basic ingredients come quick and easy together to create big flavor.  It’s practically magic. 

How to Make Carrot Salad

1. Coarsely shred carrots in a food processor or chop into 1/4-inch matchsticks, your call.
2. Dump into a good-sized bowl and set aside.
3. Add oil and spice mixture to carrots and toss to coat. Add agave, lemon juice, and sea salt.
4. May be made a day ahead and chilled in an airtight container.
5. Before serving, gently mix in parsley and enjoy slightly chilled — not cold, but cool.

Tips

• I like to make Moroccan Carrot Salad using the bunch of rainbow bunch I get in my CSA (community sponsored agriculture) box. They’re sweet and firm, and I can use the feathery greens in another dish, so there’s zero waste. But even supermarket carrots, which taste like almost nothing, will wake up and salute in this salad.  
• Using a food processor with the shred blade zips through a pound of carrots in a hot minute.
• A bendable carrot is a tired carrot, and doesn’t belong in this salad.  But you know we hate waste.  Use tired carrots to make a batch of stone soup or compost directly.  
• Full disclosure —  If you’re coming to dinner, I’ll peel your carrots, because I want everything perfect and pretty.  Butt if I’m making Moroccan Carrot Salad en famille, and if the carrots aren’t gnarly, I rinse them but don’t peel them. 
• That supermarket package of so-called baby carrots aren’t really baby carrots at all.  They’re regular carrots whittled down to stubs. Just saying.
• But what about carotoderma, you say?  Carotoderma is the orange Oompa Loompa look your skin gets if you’re on an all-carrot-all-the-time diet.  This is not a problem for most of us.  But if you’re lookign to lose that neon glow, just dial down the carrots, sweetie.  

Moroccan Carrot Salad

This Moroccan carrot salad is seasonal, bright on the plate and bright in the mouth. Absurdly easy to make, it’s quick, easy, summery, and a no-cook wonder.

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Ingredients

  

• 1 pound carrots
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 1 teaspoon cumin
• 1 teaspoon paprika smoked is particularly nice
• generous pinch cayenne pepper or if you have it, Aleppo pepper
• 2 teaspoons agave or honey
• juice of 2 lemons about 4 teaspoons
• 1/2 teaspoon sea salt
• a good handful fresh flat-leaf parsley coarsely chopped

Instructions

 

• Coarsely shred carrots in a food processor or chop into 1/4-inch matchsticks, your call.
• Dump into a good-sized bowl and set aside.
• Add oil and spice mixture to carrots and toss to coat. Add honey or agave, lemon juice, and sea salt.
• May be made a day ahead and chilled in an airtight container.
• Before serving, gently mix in parsley and enjoy slightly chilled — not cold, but cool.

More Fun with Carrots

Carrots add sweetness, volume, and bright color to recipes all around the world:

• Ukrainian slaw
• India’s quick vegetable sautée
• Haiti’s chile-spiked relish
• Roasted Carrots With Herby Coconut (vegan) Yogurt  by Gregory Gourdet (James Beard Award nominee, Top Chef finalist and Eater’s Chef of the Year) 
• Gajarra Kosambari — Indian Carrot Salad from New York Times food writer and James Beard Award winner, Tejal Rao.

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