Carrot Salad ~ Recipe

I don’t know about you but I’m always on the search for a “non-green” salad as a side dish to the seemingly millions of “green” salads out there.  I’m not knocking “green”, one of my favourite summer sides is Broccoli Salad and you can’t go wrong with a yummy tossed salad.  OK…I admit, it’s part of my obsessive personality.  But I can’t put two “green” salads side by side on a plate – it’s just not right!  You NEED contrast – I’m sorry, but that’s how my mind works. Hence, my go to Carrot Salad.  Not only is it the perfect contrast on a plate, it is also a delicious and very different salad.

My mom used to make this salad a lot.  It was her “go to” for many a pot luck dinner.  This is not a difficult salad to make and I love that you make it the night before! I have made a few little changes to my mom’s original recipe, but nothing major.

All you need are a few simple, everyday ingredients.  This picture is missing the vegetable oil that you will need. When I was gathering all of my ingredients I missed the oil. Thankfully, when I was stirring the dressing, I was thinking it wasn’t looking right, and it dawned on me that I was missing the oil!  Word to the wise – double-check your ingredients!

Peel the carrots and then chop them into coins.  I boil them with a bit of salted water. When you cook them be sure not to over cook.  You don’t want them cooked to oblivion – just tender to a knife inserted, but still a bit firm.

The original recipe called for “onions” and my mom always used the common yellow onions that we all have in our pantry.  These do work too, but I prefer to use a white onion.  The flavour is milder and I love the clean, crisp look of the white next to the other vibrant colours.

Chop your green pepper into pieces that are roughly the same size as the smaller carrot coins. My daughter is allergic to green pepper, so when the salad is complete, I always separate some out for her and then stir in green pepper for the rest of us.

This sounds like a wacky combination of ingredients, but trust me, it is DELICIOUS!  Whisk everything together and then you just pour the dressing over the vegetables and stir.

Stir the carrots, white onions, green pepper and dressing until all the vegetables are coated and glistening. I think a bigger bowl would have made my stirring much easier! (I’ll add the green pepper later, but you can mix it in now.)

I dump the works into a reusable container and pop it in the fridge.  This way I can just give the container a shake every time I open the fridge (which is fairly often these days).  You can also just keep it in the bowl, cover it with plastic wrap and stir it every now and then.  I have done it both ways and the covered container is much easier and you don’t need to dirty a spoon!

The finished salad.  Different and delicious.  I guarantee you will make it again and again!

I hope you will give this salad a try.  If you have any questions at all, please don’t hesitate to ask!