While salads made with grated raw carrots tossed with honey, lemon juice and raisins are always popular, carrot salads made with cooked carrots, well-known in the Middle East and Italy are also delicious, and pretty, too. The flavour of the carrots is enhanced if you cook them whole in their skins, but if you’re pressed for time, peel and cut them diagonally before cooking.
Ingredients
- 4 medium carrots
- handful of flat-leaved parsley leaves, roughly chopped
- grated zest of half a lemon
Optional
- 6 black olives, stoned and sliced, or
- 1 tablespoon capers
Dressing
- 1 large clove garlic, crushed to a paste with salt
- a pinch of ground cumin and a pinch of paprika
- juice of 1 large lemon
- 1 teaspoon honey or sugar
- dash of Tabasco or chilli
- quarter cup olive oil
Method
Wash the carrots and put in a pot covered with water. Boil until just tender when poked with a sharp fork. Drain and run under cold water until cool enough to pull and scrape off the skins. Slice into a bowl. Put the dressing ingredients in a jar and shake to mix. Pour over the carrots while they are still warm. Just before serving, add the parsley leaves, grated lemon zest and optional black olives or capers. May be served warm, at room temperature, or stored in the refrigerator for a day before serving.
