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!