Saturday, August 05, 2006

Peanuts & carrots

I knew that the adventurous chef Paz has good taste re: carrot dishes - after all, she really liked my recipe for rosemary & orange marinated carrots in August 2005 :) So when Paz - who had found the recipe on Valentina's blog - recently posted Nigella Lawson's recipe for The Rainbow Room’s Carrot and Peanut Salad, and praised it, I knew I had to try it, too. It's healthy. It's simple. It's delicious. And it's crunchy. What else do you need?!

Note that I adapted the recipe a little. I had picked up a tip from Harumi Kurihara's lovely book Harumi's Japanese Cooking (Conran Octopus, 2004) for preparing carrots for salads. In her recipe for Carrot & Tuna Salad she suggests that carrots be lightly cooked in a microwave, which leaves the carrots still very crispy and tasty. I agree, and suggest you do the same.

And maybe Paz and I should establish a mutual carrot recipe appreciation society :)

A crunchy salad of carrots & peanuts
(Porgandi-maapähklisalat)
Serves 4 as a side dish



4 medium organic carrots
75g salted peanuts
2 Tbsp groundnut or olive oil
2 Tbsp red wine vinegar
Few drops sesame oil

Peel the carrots and cut them into 5-6 mm julienne sticks. Put them into a glass bowl, add the oil, cover and microwave for 90 seconds (600 W) .
Drizzle with wine vinegar and sesame oil, mix well.

Serve either hot or cold.

I highly recommended you try this dish, as the sweet carrots and salty peanuts complement each other well, and the texture of the salad is really lovely - crunchy, but still gentle to your teeth. I might add some chopped parsley next time as well. And there definitely will be next time.

8 comments:

Alanna Kellogg said...

I'll join!

Kalyn Denny said...

Yes, sign me up for the Carrot Appreciation Society.

Anne said...

Oh nice, this has been on my to try list for ages. Must get around to it :)

Bonnie said...

This looks so lovely and simple! It's amazing how big the difference is between an organic carrot and a non-organic carrot is! It's so worth while going organic.

Anonymous said...

Yes, I do LOVE your rosemary and orange marinated carrots. Yes, we should form a mutual carrot recipe appreciation society. I like the sound of that. ;-)))

You carrots and peanuts salad looks delicious! I like the adaptations you made. While the unblanched or raw carrots didn't bother me, I will try the microwave trick once to see if it makes a difference for me.

It's good to know I can use olive oil if I don't have groundnut oil. And I'd like to try it with some chopped parsley, too! Thanks Pille!

By the way, I'm going to link this post to mine!

Paz (mutual carrot recipe appreciation society member)

Kris said...

hmmm...i would need to check if we have organic carrots in the shop. But i know i'll love this! thanks :)

Pille said...

AK & Kalyn & Paz - so we'll be the founding members of the Carrot Appreciation Society, eh? :)

Anne - please do, I'm sure you'll like the peanuts a lot!

Bonnie - indeed! We've discussed this organic vs non-organic carrot issue here before, but there's a HUGE taste difference!

Paz - thanks for reminding me about this recipe! I only used olive oil, as I had no groundnut oil in the house. The same with wine vinegar - I only had white in my cupboard. And as I'm moving home soon, I didn't think it's worthwile going to the shops and get some. Thanks for linking back to me!

Kris - good to hear that and thank you for your comment!

Valentina said...

Hi Pille, so glad to be back here. have been a bit busy and only manage to update Brazilian website.The English one has been very neglected as well as visits to various blogs including yours. Need to sort this out. This is a lovely recipe, isn't it? I have taken note of the book you mention. Will be doing some research.Love your posts and how your write.