The grated carrot salad is the original wallflower at the orgy.
Penguin Random House published a marvellous collection of magazine articles written in the late sixties and seventies by Nora Ephron, whose title “Wallflower at the Orgy” described how she viewed her profession as a journalist. As far as she was concerned, her job was to stand in the corner and take notes while everyone else had all the fun.
In the past decade, hundreds of glorious carrot salad recipes have been created for our benefit, each more complex than the next. Carrots have been parboiled, roasted, charred, pickled, and adorned with everything from pistachios, harissa, cumin, preserved lemons, cilantro, orange flower water and gold dust. Waiters practiced their acting skills at farm-to-table restaurants by delivering eloquent speeches about Suzy the Carrot’s journey from the depths of the earth to Chef’s chopping block. Some of us felt blessed by Suzy’s sacrifice on our plate … some of us did not. The pomp and circumstance was a lot of fun, but the days of elaborate recipes with 15 ingredients and personal vegetable trajectories are over, at least for the near future. It is now time for the demure French carrot salad, les carottes râpées, to take her rightful position as belle of the ball.
The next time you stand in the produce area of the supermarket in your mask and plastic gloves, don’t despair over the soggy salads with their x*@*#xx*# brown roots. Just grab more carrots than you actually planned to buy for the week and things will turn out just fine.
Notes:
The original salad does not have garlic. I like to use a generous handful of parsley, but this is also optional.
Do not make hours in advance, as it will become soggy.
For a garden lunch, serve with good bread, boiled eggs and just a smidge of Dijon mustard and mayonnaise. For an easy garden dinner, add some ham to the plate.
List of Ingredients
Carrots
Salt
Lemon juice
1 clove garlic
A generous handful of parsley, finely chopped
Approximately 2 tablespoons of olive oil
Making the Salad
Peel more carrots than you think you and your family will eat. Shred them with your food processor using the grater attachment with the finest blade. They can also be grated by hand.
Put them in a bowl. Add salt, lemon juice to taste, one clove of garlic cut in half with the germ removed, and the chopped parsley. Add just a little bit of olive oil. Too much will make it greasy and mask the fresh taste of the carrots.
Toss everything together, remove the garlic and adjust seasoning to your taste.
Serve immediately.
