~Amanda~
A few weeks ago, Jaclyn and her husband had Conor and I over for dinner. She was making Moroccan Chicken and Saffron Rice and asked me to bring another side to go with the meal. I love being given a task like this and got on Pinterest right away to come up with the perfect Moroccan side dish to go with her meal. Immediately, recipes for Moroccan Carrot Salad were jumping out to me. A vegetable forward dish sounded like the perfect complement to chicken and rice and I loved all the different varieties of carrot salads I was finding – I had some decisions to make; dressing or no dressing? Nuts, no nuts? Spices?
(Summit is always nearby hahaha)
After researching for a while, I decided to make my own version taking the parts that I liked the most from all the recipes I had looked at. One thing was certain, I needed A LOT of carrots. For the base of the salad, I shredded a huge bag of carrots up and dumped them in a giant bowl. I then added in some other fresh ingredients like cilantro, parsley and green onion. All of these ingredients make the dish so aromatic and add a pop to the otherwise very orange color scheme. Next came some crumbled feta for a cool and creamy note (and let’s be honest, I just love cheese and add it where I can). Dates are one of my favorite foods and a classic middle eastern ingredient so I added those along with some raisins for a little sweetness. Finally, some pistachios (or sunflower seeds) add a great crunchy texture to the salad.
Now, you could stop right here and have an amazing carrot salad, but I wanted to add some classic Moroccan spice to the dish too! One ingredient that I have been completely obsessed with lately is tahini and I use it all the time to make dressings so it was an obvious choice to use as a dressing for this salad. I combined the tahini with some olive oil, lemon juice, honey and warm water to make the vinaigrette. I then added some delicious, warm spices – cumin, coriander, paprika, cinnamon and cayenne – to get an extra punch of flavor. Once all that was mixed together, I tossed it with the carrot mixture and it was ready to serve! I made so much of this salad and thought I would for sure be bringing home a bunch of leftovers, but it was SO good that the four of us finished off the entire bowl! It was also so good that I have made it several times since that night and I can’t seem to get enough of it, I hope you enjoy it just as much as we do!
(Paired with Moroccan Chicken and Saffron Rice – YUM!)
- 10-15 large carrots, peeled and grated
- ¼ cup cilantro and/or parsley, chopped
- 2 green onions, chopped
- ½ cup crumbled feta cheese
- ¼ cup dates, pitted and chopped
- ¼ cup raisins
- ¼ cup pistachios, chopped (or sunflower seeds)
- 3 tablespoons tahini
- 1 lemon, zested and juiced
- ¼ cup olive oil
- 1 teaspoon honey
- 3 tablespoons warm water
- ½ teaspoon cumin
- ¼ teaspoon coriander
- ¼ teaspoon paprika
- ⅛ teaspoon cinnamon
- ⅛ teaspoon cayenne
- Salt and pepper, to taste
- In a large bowl, gently toss the carrots, cilantro/parsley, green onion, feta, dates, raisins and pistachios. Set aside.
- In a smaller bowl, whisk together all of the ingredients for the tahini vinaigrette.
- Pour the vinaigrette over the carrot mixture and toss until everything is combined.
- If you’re not serving immediately, place the vinaigrette at the bottom of a large bowl, pour the carrot mixture on top, cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate. When you’re ready to serve, let the bowl sit at room temperature for about 20 minutes then toss the carrots with the vinaigrette at the bottom of the bowl and enjoy.
