Recipe File: Bright Carrot Salad

Thank you, Carrot Salad.

You are bright and crunchy and you stay that way for days. You are so pretty.

You are keeping me alive and improving my eyesight through this cold spring in NYC. Where’s the asparagus? Not here, I can tell you.

I was late to appreciate carrots but now I love them, raw or cooked.

You’ve got to get the big huge jumbo loose carrots. They are so much sweeter than the slims and babies. I learned this by accident and haven’t looked back.

Today’s carrot salad is a little sweet and a little salty, with honey, preserved lemon and lots of herbs. I used my fancy olive oil and red wine vinegar.

I used my food processor to grate, but it’s much nicer to grate by hand on a box grater if you have the bandwidth.

This salad gets better with time. I’ve been eating this for lunch alongside tuna salad one day, leftover steak the next. My husband has been eating it out of the Tupp, standing in the kitchen, staring out the window at the biting rain.

For 6-8 generous portions, it goes like this:

Ingredients

2 pounds jumbo carrots (about 4), grated

1 preserved lemon, most of the flesh removed, remaining rind finely diced

Parsley, dill, and mint—chopped, a handful of each

1 garlic clove, grated on a zester

½ cup oil

3-4 tablespoons vinegar

1 tablespoon honey

1 teaspoon ground coriander

1 teaspoon sumac, plus more for garnish

½ teaspoon salt

¼ teaspoon ground black pepper

Preparation

Thoroughly toss all the ingredients in a bowl.

Chill for at least 30 minutes before serving.

It’s also nice to chill it overnight. Garnish with a good dusting of sumac, so lovely.

About The Author

For Sarah Ross, everyday cooking is about winging it—with a classic or an old favorite recipe given to her by a friend. These are the recipes that get stained with spills from being on repeat, the ones to share.

27 Comments

caroline duquette 5/10/24 • 4:47AM

Delicious and nutritious!
Holly 5/10/24 • 4:54AM

I, too, have discovered the jumbo carrot joy! Thanks, Sarah, for spreading the word through your no-doubt-delicious-soon-to-be-in-my-Tupp recipe. Yay Jumbos!!!!
Maggie Perkinson 5/10/24 • 5:25AM

Another for the recipe box! Going to try it tonight! Thanks, Sarah.
MarthaW 5/10/24 • 5:55AM

Sounds delicious, and I have also hopped on the jumbo carrot bandwagon! I always called them horse carrots, until I tasted a few. Now the horses only get the stub ends.
J Hegan 5/10/24 • 6:12AM

Hi – I don’t see where you used fancy olive oil or red wine vinegar for ingredients as noted in the copy. Are those also part of the ingredients? Thanks.
- Barbara S 5/10/24 • 10:41AM
  
  Agree! Hopefully someone will see this and correct the post to include the amounts of these ingredients.
- Karen D 5/10/24 • 6:48AM
  
  Yes I want to know that too!
  - Adrienne Martini 5/10/24 • 6:44PM
    
    Small oversight on our part! The change has been made. Thanks for your patience.
Linda V. 5/10/24 • 6:42AM

This looks delicious and hits a lot of favorite flavors. I’ll make it today. Thanks!
Karen Kuntz 5/10/24 • 6:52AM

This looks amazing. Do you add a dressing of some sort? You mention oil and vinegar.
- Adrienne Martini 5/10/24 • 6:45PM
  
  Small oversight. The recipe has been corrected. Sorry about that.
Laurie 5/10/24 • 6:53AM

Do you put the flesh of the preserved lemon in or just the rind chopped?
MandasMom 5/10/24 • 6:58AM

Thanks to my MDK recipe repertoire I have be assigned the role of “salads” for all of our dinner gatherings.

I am looking forward to serving this one.
Casey Wagner 5/10/24 • 8:07AM

Nothing beats a new Sarah Ross recipe! Sounds so good.
Glynis 5/10/24 • 8:47AM

I also want to try this but want to know about the oil and vinegar mentioned in the text above.
Beth J 5/10/24 • 9:16AM

Sounds and looks yummy, thanks Sarah. I’ll check back for updates (oil, vinegar?)
- Wendy in NC 5/10/24 • 12:11PM
  
  I’m also curious about where the oil and vinegar come in!
  - Adrienne Martini 5/10/24 • 6:45PM
    
    Small oversight on our part. The recipe has been corrected. 🙂
    - Wendy in nc 5/10/24 • 8:38PM
      
      Thank you! I made this for lunch just guessing and it was delicious. I will try it according to protocol next time!
MLEgan 5/10/24 • 9:56AM

I have preserved lemon doing its thing in the refrigerator right now. I, too, discovered that the large, misshapen carrots from my garden are the sweetest! Thanks for the recipe. I look forward to trying it
Janet 5/10/24 • 10:33AM

I am trying this today thank you
CarolA 5/10/24 • 9:02PM

You had me at preserved lemon! Love anything that includes them!
Anne Burton 5/11/24 • 12:10PM

Is there any way to make this into a handy dandy downloadable one-page pdf, like other recipes in the past?
ashiroff 5/12/24 • 2:09PM

Just received the preserved lemons from Amazon and whipped up a batch. This salad is delicious and I think it’ll be a staple all summer. Thank you!
Kay Gardiner 5/13/24 • 6:28PM

Despite the sad lack of preserved lemon, I made it over the weekend (subbed in lemon juice and zest, but there is no sub for preserved lemon!) and it was delicious.

Healthy but not so’s you’d notice!
valsadler 5/13/24 • 8:37PM

Not having luck finding sumac. Where should I buy this? Thanks.
Kary 5/16/24 • 9:09PM

“I used my food processor to grate, but it’s much nicer to grate by hand on a box grater if you have the bandwidth.”

I confess, I first read that as “if you have the bandaids” and my brain just went “OK! We got bandaids!” It does look yummy though.