Carrots

Cumin Carrot Salad

01Jan

This is a very common Moroccan style salad found in Israel. Different restaurants and hotels have their own way of preparing it. We started making it purely according to taste and what we thought the ingredients should be. It’s one of Jacques’ favourites.

What you need for the salad

Carrots
Cilantro leaves

What you need for the dressing

I will not give any exact amounts because I cannot – I never use any measuring system when making a dressing.

Cumin Spice
Salt
Olive Oil
Lemon Juice

Peel the carrots and cut them in circles.

The thickness of the circle is really up to your own preference.

Place them into a pot with water. We already add salt and cumin into the water that we boil the carrots in as we find that it enhances the taste of the carrots.

Boil the carrots until soft, but not too soft it. Is nice if they still have a slight crunch on them so that it is not a soft soggy salad.

Drain the water and allow the carrots to cool down.

Mix together the olive oil, lemon juice, salt and cumin until well combined – Jacques likes a very strong cumin taste on this salad so we are very generous when using the cumin, but it is really up to you how you spice this dressing.

Finely chop the cilantro and add it to the carrots.

Cover the salad with the dressing and make sure that everything is well covered.

We normally prepare this salad a day ahead of time to allow the flavours to mix and rest well.

We also take it out of the refrigerator about an hour or so before serving to allow the olive oil to liquify, olive oil solidifies when it is chilled.

Mix the salad through before serving to ensure that all the flavours are mixed well.

Carrot with Sweet Chilli Sauce

01Jan

This is an accidental salad. We were planning on making carrots in the oven to serve as a hot side with our main course but we had a few last minute surprise guests and then we realized that we had too little carrots to serve as a side dish so we decided to make it as a salad together with our Challah and other salads. 

What you need

  • Carrots 
  • Olive oil
  • Sweet paprika spice 
  • Sweet chilli sauce
  • Ground salt

Peel and cut your carrots 

We like to play around with different shapes when it comes to cutting carrots. We cut these diagonally but your carrots can be any shape.

Place the carrots in a baking dish and cover them with olive oil, sweet chilli sauce, salt and paprika. 

Stir it through making sure that all the carrots are covered and roast it in the oven uncovered  until they are soft and the sweet chill has formed a nice sticky glaze on the carrots.

Remember to stir the carrots a few times through the roasting process a few times to avoid them from burning and to make sure that they all cook evenly and stay covered in the sauce.  

When roasting carrots it is also best to rather have a single layer of carrots than too many on top of each other so that they roast evenly instead of steaming.

When the carrots are done allow them to cool down, serve them in a nice glass bowl and dress it with a nice piece of fresh coriander.

Although it was an accidental salad, I think it will definitely be a repeat dish.