When you are looking for easy salad recipes, make sure to keep this carrot salad in your repertoire. This can be made two ways, even three! And can be made ahead.
Of the Indian carrot recipes, this is one of my favorites to put together when carrots are aplenty. And I like using the rainbow carrots for this recipe. Each color of these rainbow carrots has a distinct taste and texture, which as you know is a great thing to have in a salad.
A few interesting facts about this salad –
It uses a chutney as a dressing. I make it with peanut but you can easily substitute with cashews for a paleo friendly option.
The “chutney dressing” is always on the side
This fresh, zingy salad can be served on its own or as a side. The zing comes from the tempering of mustard and chillies in oil.
The shredded version of this salad will make for a lovely sandwich filling as does the peanut chutney.
I am sharing two ways to make this easy and delicious salad.
One is where you make long strips of carrots, dip them in lemon juice and spices and roll them up to plate. The other is to cut carrots into strips and mix the other ingredients in.
Both the methods make a delicious salad and it is upto you what you choose on a particular day. You can also use pre shredded carrots for this to make things easy when in a time crunch.
Carrot Salad
Ingredients
- 4 carrots Various colors
- 1/2 tsp lemon zest
- 3 tbsp lemon juice
- 1/4 tsp salt
Peanut chutney
- 1/2 c peanuts raw , unsalted
- 1 tbsp oil
- 1/4 cup finely chopped onion
- 1 clove garlic
- 2 chilies whole, dried
- 1 tbsp tamarind pulp
- 1/2 cup water
- 1/4 tsp salt
- 1 tbsp sesame seeds slightly toasted
- 2 tbs sunflower seeds
Tempering
- 1/2 tsp brown mustard seeds
- 2 thai green chilli chopped fine
Instructions
Roast the peanuts on low heat until slightly browned
Once roasted, remove from pan and keep aside to cool
In the same pan, dry roast the sesame seeds and keep aside to cool
Add oil to the pan and saute the onions and garlic until slightly browned. Finally add the dry chilies and saute until aromatic. Make sure to not overcook the chili.
Soak the tamarind in half a cup of water and strain to remove any residual seeds
Blend the peanuts, onion, garlic and tamarind water and salt until smooth. Reserve to serve with the salad.
Tempering
Heat oil and add the mustard seeds in it
when the mustard seeds start to splutter around, switch off heat and add the green chili. allow to cool . when cool add this tempering to the lemon juice and mix .
Compose the salad
Peel and Slightly blanch the whole carrots for about 3 minutes so they soften just little bit.
Using a peeler, make thin ribbons from all carrots.
Dunk each peel into the tempering mix and then roll it up to keep ready for plating.
Or cut the carrots into julienne and mix the tempering into it
Serve with chutney and sunflower seeds and sesame seeds for extra crunch
Welcome to Progressive Eats, our virtual version of a Progressive Dinner Party. This month’s theme is a Easy Summer Dishes, and our host is Barb who blogs at Creative Culinary If you’re unfamiliar with the concept, a progressive dinner involves going from house to house, enjoying a different course at each location. With Progressive Eats it’s a virtual party. A theme is chosen each month, members share recipes suitable for a delicious meal or party, and you can hop from blog to blog to check them out. Come along and see all of the delicious summer inspired dishes!Easy Summer Dishes
Appetizers- Salmon and Cream Cheese Bagel Board – Creative Culinary
- Radish Toast, Two Ways – Sarah’s Cucina Bella
- Country-Style Potato Salad with Creole Mustard – Karen’s Kitchen Stories
- Cucumber Salad – Healthy Delicious
- Blistered Shishito Peppers with Cheese – The Wimpy Vegetarian
- Indian Carrot Salad – SpiceRoots
- Chicken Fried Rice – The Heritage Cook
- Minty Couscous Salad – Mother Would Know
- Fudgy Brownies from Scratch – That Skinny Chick Can Bake
Comments 11
This is stunning! And the chutney sounds delicious. I’d love to make it. I have tamarind concentrate on hand – do you by any chance know how much I would use?
Author
I don’t have experience working with the concentrate, Susan. I would start with 1/4tsp and keep tasting until I got the right balance of tart. Good Luck and keep me posted on what worked for you.
This is absolutely beautiful! Wow. What a salad!
How many times can I say it; this is beautiful! Plus I have carrots. I forgot I had carrots when I bought more…maybe just for this salad!
Author
Yes, you got to make this salad!!
This salad is so gorgeous!!! Such a neat recipe and quite the showstopper.
This is absolutely stunning Anshie and will certainly wow anyone! I love the idea of using chutney for the dressing – brilliant!
I love how beautiful this salad is – and I just bought tamarind! Although carrot salad is a constant here in the summer, my versions thus far have used shredded or chopped carrots. I can’t wait to try this version. I did see rainbow carrots at Whole Foods months ago. Wonder where I can get them now?
Author
They were available for short time at whole foods. Our local farmers grow the variety, so hopefully you will find them locally in farmer’s markets in fall.
This looks great! Such a terrific list of ingredients — bet the flavor is awesome. Love the color, too. Thanks!
Gorgeous salad with the vibrant colored carrots!! And a perfect side dish for summer!!!