Salade de carottes râpées

Salade de carottes râpées (grated carrot salad)


We got back from Spain very late Sunday night. Yesterday I went to my co-op, The Wedge, to stock up on fresh vegetables for my 2015 salad crusade. I ended up using the carrots I already had in the fridge to make the carrot salad. David Liebowitz's recipe serves a large group, but I was just making enough for me so I didn't follow his quantities. His recipe uses a little bit of sugar, but prefer to leave that out.

Mix up:

2 large carrots, preferably grown nearby, grated. Mine are from my CSA farm, Featherstone Farm, and are fat and sturdy.

parsley, chopped. I like flat-leaf parsley better than the curly stuff.

juice of half a lemon

a few glugs of some really good olive oil. I have some Koronciki oil (made in Crete from Koroneiki olives, a Greek cultivar) that I bought in Northfield at the olive oil store.

salt ("Une belle pincée de sel") and pepper

Fresh, fresh, very fresh! As Liebowitz says, don't over do the vinaigrette. It shouldn't be swimming in it, just lightly coated.

I first had this salad when I was in France for my junior year of college. The student restaurants ("Resto U") in  France are very cheap and the food they serve was so incredibly good and healthy compared to the dorm food I was eating back in the States. I fell in love with this modest little salad.  Variations include using orange juice instead of lemon; throwing in some raisins;  adding cumin or pressed garlic to the vinaigrette. Some recipes call for chives (ciboulette) but I prefer the fresh taste of good parsley.