Wednesday, December 14, 2005

Moroccan carrot salad recipe Jazar Bil Kamoun Wal Toum

I’ve been cooking a lot with carrots recently. To be more precise, I’ve been eating loads of carrots recently – most of them end up on my table as juicy carrot sticks for nibbling. But since discovering that carrots are yummy with orange and rosemary, and that they pair well with ginger, feta and mustard seeds, I’m keen to try even more new ways with them.

Here is a tasty recipe for a Moroccan carrot salad with cumin and garlic, Jazar Bil Kamoun Wal Toum, from Claudia Roden’s beautiful last book, Arabesque: A Taste of Morocco, Turkey and Lebanon. I only bought the book a fortnight ago, and it's full of really temtping and tasty sounding recipes. This was the first recipe I tried from the book, cooked in a flash for a light lunch on Sunday.

As I used smallish young organic carrots instead of older carrots, as recommended by Claudia Roden, I skipped ‘boil the carrots’ phase. And I used crushed cumin instead of ground.

Jazar Bil Kamoun Wal Toum
(Maroko porgandisalat)



5 large carrots (about 600 grams)
4 Tbsp extra virgin olive oil
4 cloves garlic, crushed
1 tsp ground or crushed cumin seeds
sea salt flakes
crushed black pepper
juice of 1/2 lemon

Cut the carrots into four lengthwise, then into sticks. Boil until al dente. Drain.
Heat the olive oil on a large saucepan, add the carrot sticks and sauté on a medium heat for a few minutes, until carrot softens.
Add garlic, cumin, salt and pepper, and sauté on a medium-high heat until the garlic is slightly golden.
Sprinkle with lemon juice and serve cold.

I was quite hungry when cooking this, so I didn’t have the patience to wait for the salad to cool. And I couldn’t see why I should have – the ‘salad’ was very nice as warm side dish on its own.

PS It's also very nice with some crumbled feta cheese!

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

These carrots look very good. I will try them later this week. You always have such tasty looking recipes on your site! I will have to try your spice cookie recipe as well, I usually make ginger snaps so this will be an interesting change.
I tried out your Canadian apple cake and it was quite good. My children loved it warm, drizzled with a bit of maple syrup. I mostly make an apple sauce cake so this is a nice change.

Kalyn Denny said...

Yum, yum. I want to try these Moroccan carrots for sure. I've seen similar recipes but hadn't gotten around to trying anything yet.

Journal Actif said...

Pille, this recipe sounds really good. In Morocco this is a classic recipe. Each housewife has her version of it. In my version, I add at the very end some fresh chopped cilantro leaves.

This "chermoula" carrot dish is very good either hot, room temperature or just warm.

My mother's recipe for those was quite "strong" in taste. Lots of cumin, paprika, fruity olive oil and garlic, rather hot with piments too. She always makes a lot and store it in a tight box in the fridge. I remember when I was still living in the family home, I loved slicing open a good piece of baguette bread and fill it her "chermoula" carrots when I got back from school. Very nice end of the afternoon sandwich.

Unknown said...

happy holidays pille! thank you for the wonderful recipes...

K and S said...

looks great!!can't wait to try some of your recipes.

Pille said...

Terri - thank you for your kind words, and I'm glad your children liked the Canadian apple cake! Let me know what you thought of the carrots, if you decide to give it a go..

Kalyn - do try these - they were delicious, easy and different.

Zoubida - a huge thanks for all that amazing information on chermoula carrots - very much appreciated! I make sure to add some coriander leaves (that's UK English for cilantro:) next time.

Drstel - thanks for visiting my blog, and I'm pleased you like the recipes.

kat & satoshi - welcome to my blog and again, I'm very flattered if I've managed to provide some recipe inspiration!

Anonymous said...

I'm glad you said that you skipped the boiling the carrot part, because I was thinking of doing that. ;-) I have all the ingredients (I think!) except for the feta cheese. Can't wait to try it. ;-)

Paz