Crushed Spiced Carrot Salad
Last month while I was travelling, contributors to the Cookbook Guru were busy cooking and posting from Paua Wolfert’s The Food of Morocco.” I confess, at the time, I was a tad envious. I was beginning to tire of choosing from lookalike menus in cafes each day.
Initially there was a flurry of activity preparing the basics, pickled lemons, saffron water and tomato magic, then recipes for succulent tagine dinners and spiced vegetable dishes began to appear. I developed serious menu envy.
Fortunately my local library had a copy of Wolfert’s book in stock so now it’s my turn to put “The Food of Morocco” to the test.
This is an interesting read, but it’s been a challenging book for me to cook from. Food intolerance prevents my consumption of wheat, lactose, onion, and dried fruits all which are used liberally throughout this book in quantities limiting the adaptability of the recipe. Sadly this dampened my enthusiasm however, all was not lost, I found a few dishes which only required minor adjustments.
The Crushed Spiced Carrot Salad is very similar to a Claudia Roden recipe I have made many times. We much preferred the texture of the roughly mashed carrots in Wolfert’s recipe, but considered the lemon, spices and seasonings too subtle.
I have transcribed the ingredients verbatim, but simplified the method. You be the judge.
Crushed Spiced Carrot Salad
4 medium carrots
2 cloves of garlic
1 teaspoon sea salt
3/4 teaspoon cumin seed (or ground cumin)
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
3 tablespoons olive oil
1 tablespoon finely chopped parsley
Peel the carrots, cut into large chunks and steam until soft, then roughly mash with a fork or potato masher.
While the carrots are cooking crush the garlic and salt into a paste with the side of a knife blade.
Grind the cumin seed.
Heat the oil in a pan, roast the spice then stir through the garlic paste. Cook gently for a couple of minutes then stir through the carrots.
Remove from the heat, add the lemon juice, a generous grinding of black pepper and the chopped parsley.
Season to taste then serve warm.
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23 comments on “Crushed Spiced Carrot Salad”
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Please Pass the Recipe by Sandra Gay is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 3.0 Unported License.
Please Pass the Recipe 
Oh my, with all those food intolerances, it is a wonder you found anything in Wolfert’s book! Love any kind of carrot salad of which she has a few in the book. This one looks delicious! What next?
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The salad was good, lamb next..
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What a lovely way of preparing carrots Sandra – love the use of spices! This would have gone perfectly with our slow-cooked Lamb Shanks and couscous last night!
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Margot, they would have been perfect together!
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Cooked carrots are my sons favorite vegetable and I always just steam them and serve them sliced with a little olive oil & salt. I love this mash! I’m going to make this for him. I just bought a beautiful bunch of organic carrots at the coop yesterday. He’ll love it. Thank you for sharing! I can imagine how wonderful carrots taste with cumin and cinnamon.
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It a great combo Seana, enjoy…
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Very, very interesting cooked carrot salad. I make cooked carrot for dinner almost every day. I can’t wait till I try this recipe. Thanks!
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I hope you enjoy carrots prepared this way, simple and tasty
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i love Moroccan food and Middle Eastern food so this book appealed to me. I love the sound of this salad too. The flavours sound very delicious.
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Hi Sherry, the spices are perfect with the carrots, really complimentary
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Reblogged this on The Cookbook Guru and commented:
Lady Red Specs from Please Pass The Recipe has contributed a gorgeous Carrot Salad as part of The Cookbook Guru collective. Make sure you check out the post.
Happy Reading and Happy Cooking,
Leah
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I never found a copy in the libraries near me and the internet offerings weren’t so appealing. A carrot dish side is always a lovely thing- but as I have just made a large batch of your special seasoning from a few posts ago, I might just use that instead. ( and a touch of garlic). As we are heading off shortly for a month, I am attempting to use everything on hand!
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Where are you going this time, somewhere exotic? This isn’t a book I yearn to own, the couple of dishes I’ve made have been enough for me…
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I’m off to Indonesia for a month. Given my addiction to posting, I may need to buy a data pack over there. I hope to do a post from Baanardi’s kitchen in West Java. There will also be some teeth enhancements!!! then Bali for a rest.
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This is one I have to try, love the way you have simplified it for a midweek dinner.
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I think you’ll like it Liz….
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I have never eaten carrots cooked this way! I usually go for the raw version! They must taste delicious! And I really love the way the carrots are seasoned! A must-try for me! Thank you, Sandra! 😍
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Enjoy….
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Oh yes Mrs R. Love the idea of tender mashed carrots spiced up this way.
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Thanks Cheery, a great change to plain old steamed carrots
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One of my alltime favourite cookery books: I was in Paula’s ‘Moroccan Group’ on Facebook years ago before she got ill when the new edition came out and did a lot of PR for her. Wonderfully warm person with superb food knowledge. Have done her carrot salad regularly: one of my very favourite ways of eating carrots. So sorry you cannot follow her recipes exactly . . . hope you had a good Easter . . .
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Thanks Eha, Easter was very restful. Wolfert has flown below my radar for many many years, this is my first close encounter
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Her Mediterranean cookery books are also great and may have more recipes you can personally use. Also any of us who know people with Alzheimer’s should follow her superbly brave and documented fight about how not to give up.
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