Shredded Carrot Salad with Cumin and Harissa
Raw carrots dressed hard in cumin and harissa until they taste like they've been cooked, without ever touching a burner.
- Serves
- 4
- Prep
- 15 min
- Cook
- 0 min
- Written
Method
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Grate the carrots on the large holes of a box grater, or shave into ribbons with a vegetable peeler.
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Whisk the garlic, cumin, harissa, olive oil, and lemon juice together until the harissa dissolves and the dressing turns a deep orange-red.
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Toss the carrots and raisins with the dressing until every strand is coated and glossy.
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Season with salt and let sit at room temperature for 15 minutes, until the carrots taste less raw and have started to soften.
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Fold in the cilantro just before serving so it stays bright instead of wilting into the dressing.
Notes
The rest is what makes this work — straight from the bowl the carrots still taste like a vegetable, but fifteen minutes under the acid and salt softens them into something closer to lightly pickled. Don’t skip it, and don’t dress the salad any earlier than that; much past thirty minutes the raisins turn the whole thing soupy.
Swap the raisins for chopped dates if that’s what’s in the pantry, and thin the dressing with a spoonful of water if the harissa you’re using runs especially thick. It sits well next to anything off the grill, or on its own with warm flatbread to drag through the extra dressing at the bottom of the bowl.