Belarussian Carrot Salad

I didn't understand how a carrot salad could garner a review of "5" from fellow cookbooker "Duck's Guts". It bugged me. So I hunted down the recipe and tried for myself.

This very easy salad has an amazing flavor. Kids loved it, and had huge second helpings. 13 daughter says it had complex flavor, not at all like carrot, 16 yr old son said little, but managed three helpings, and DH says he loved the subtle onion flavor.

I should have followed Duck's Guts (and the recipe's) suggestion to use the food processor. But I hate cleaning it, so used the smallest blade on my mandoline. It was a lot of grating. I was surprised at the addition of a whole tsp of salt, but went ahead and added it. The cider vinegar seemed a bit on the skimpy side, but I mixed it up well, and popped it into the refrigerator.

The recipe suggests refrigeration overnight, ours was more like 48 hours. At the end, you are instructed to toast some conriander seeds, add them, then sautée onion and garlic - and drip the oil into the carrots. I heeded DuckGut's warning that there was very little oil, and so used a bit of extra. The left-over cooked onions went into the hopping john leftovers.

I didn't have coriander seeds, so used ground coriander. I'd love a repeat with the real coriander seeds.

This is a salad I could eat often. Nice and crunchy, good flavor, and healthy to boot!

This was surprisingly nice, and very easy to make. Putting the carrots through the food processor only took a couple of minutes, and the onions, although taking longer then I expected, only need minimal attention on the stove. However, my onions didn't drain easily, to the extent that in the end I had to squeeze the flavoured oil out with my hands. It isn't the prettiest of salads, and needs some decorating, a sprig or two of mint perhaps, or edible flowers. No tweaking was needed, which is a nice change.