Carrots salad with cilantro
I’m sitting here on a rainy November night, in an orange sweater, thinking about carrots and admiring all the orange food we’ve blogged about recently. Fall is here, and I’m trying to focus on the positives. Like, my orange sweater may be a slightly nauseating shade. But it’s cashmere. See – you win some, you lose some.
Now on to the food. One of the reasons I struggle with cooking vegetables is I don’t do sides. I’m a major advocate of one dish meals, and my one dish meals don’t often feature veggies in a major way. But I recently found a carrot salad recipe that’s easy and great. What more do you want from me?
Tunisian carrots (adapted from Epicurious)
Supposedly serves 4, but that hasn’t been my experience.
- 1 1/2 pounds carrots, peeled, cut into 1/4-inch-thick rounds
- 3 tablespoons olive oil
- 2 teaspoons ground cumin
- 1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper
- 3 tablespoons water
- 3 tablespoons white wine vinegar
- 1/3 cup chopped fresh cilantro
Put the carrots in a pot of boiling, salted water and cook for 6-7 minutes. You want the carrots on the way to tender, but with plenty of bite left – especially if you’re like me and think cooked carrots are a bit sad. Drain.
In a skillet, or at least wide-bottomed pot, put the olive oil, cumin and cayenne. After about a minute, add the carrots, vinegar and water. Cook, stirring frequently, for five minutes. Remove from heat and let cool. The carrots could be chilled completely if you don’t want to eat them right away, but at least give them 10-15 minutes to be not hot. Just before serving, stir in the cilantro. (The point is not to let the hot carrots cook the cilantro.)
I can’t tell you how it holds up as leftovers, because we’ve never had any.
-Eve
I can has cheezcloth? 