Carrot Salad - General Cooking Principles
We, modern housewives, are so used to a root crop called carrots that we take it for granted. Carrots and any dish will decorate, and will bring new flavoring shades to it, and will endow them with aroma, and, of course, will saturate the body with vitamins, minerals and carotene. After all, no wonder in ancient Rome she was called the orange queen of vegetables and praised as divine grace.
What just do not cook from this wonderful vegetable? This is an indispensable attribute of almost any first course. In addition, adding carrots to a salad is a very competent and productive move, not only in terms of taste, but also in terms of usefulness. Imagine the benefits it will bring in combination with other vegetables, light meat or fruits! By the way, about the combinations: the culinary experts attribute carrots to universal food products, so it fits perfectly with almost any salad, but it gets great taste value with cucumbers, green peas, radishes, cabbage, onions, garlic, seafood, as well as meat and fruits like apples and oranges.
Carrots are a low-calorie vegetable that contains about 30 kcal per 100 g. product, therefore, many diets for weight loss have been developed on its basis, but in order for carotene and vitamins to be absorbed better, carrot salads must be seasoned with vegetable oil, sour cream, mayonnaise or any other fatty sauce.
Carrot Salad - Preparation
So, to make our salad as useful and tasty as possible, let's look at some points that need to be guided in choosing carrots. Determining the degree of usefulness of a product is easy. First, look at the color, the brighter the carrot, the richer it is carotene; therefore, such a vegetable will be healthier. The second point that you should pay attention to: carrots should not be soft, because such a consistency indicates improper storage. Thirdly, it is believed that ideally carrots should have a mass of 130 to 180 grams. It is in this weight range that it is most useful and fortified.
Depending on the recipe, the carrots are boiled, fried, marinated or used raw. In any case, at first it is thoroughly washed with a brush from deep contaminants or the upper skin is peeled off (the longer the vegetable is "free", the rougher its skin becomes). Boiled carrots for salads are whole and, as a rule, with peel, which subsequently departs quite well from the pulp. Carrot certainly tastes good, but few of us agree to gnaw a raw vegetable every day, so let me suggest some recipes for carrot salads that can brighten up and diversify your diet. Cook and eat for health!
Carrot Salad - The Best Recipes
Recipe 1: Korean Carrot Salad
Korean carrot salad is worthy of all praise. It is very light, tasty and, like plasticine, opens up great opportunities for imagination and experimentation with ingredients. We present to your attention a simple, quick, original, but at the same time low-cost carrot salad recipe with mushrooms, sweet pepper and crab meat.
Ingredients:
- Korean carrots 200 gr.
- champignons (or white) 150 gr.
- sweet pepper 3 pieces
- crab meat (sticks) 200 gr.
- salt
- greenery
- vegetable oil
Cooking method:
Remove the stalk from the peppers, clean the box of seeds, cut into rings or thin plastics. Wash the mushrooms and boil in salted water, then cut into slices. Cut crab meat (sticks) into strips. Put all the ingredients, including Korean carrots, in the salad bowl and mix thoroughly, seasoning the salad with finely chopped herbs, if necessary with salt, vegetable (preferably olive) oil.
Put the salad for a short time in the refrigerator so that Korean carrots give their taste to the dish to the maximum and soak other ingredients in it.
Recipe 2: Sweet Fresh Carrot Salad
Carrots, raisins, apples in combination with sour cream and honey sauce. Such a salad can be safely attributed to a dessert dish. Fast, tasty and very vitamin! A bold combination will provide strength to your cardiovascular system, due to the content of vitamins and potassium necessary for the heart muscle.
Ingredients:
- carrots 3 medium pieces (about 500 gr.)
- apple 2 pieces
- one cup of raisins
- a teaspoon of honey
- sour cream 50-70 gr.
Cooking method:
In warm water, soak the raisins until they completely swell (30 minutes). Grate the carrots on a fine grater, drain the excess liquid, leaving a little to dilute the honey. Cut the apples into small cubes or strips. Mix all of the above ingredients. Mix honey with a spoonful of carrot juice, which is then mixed with sour cream. Dress the salad with the resulting sweet sauce. If desired, crushed walnuts can be added to the dish to taste.
Recipe 3: Cabbage and Carrot Salad
Perhaps the most affordable salad of all. You can cook it in the traditional way: rinse chopped cabbage, add carrots and season with vegetable oil and vinegar. But what if pre-marinated carrots? Surely it will be tastier. Let's try.
Ingredients:
- white cabbage 1 forks
- one big carrot
- 1 onion
- salt
- a little sugar
- ground pepper (black)
- parsley
- juice of one lemon (half for carrots, half for cabbage)
- sunflower oil
Cooking method:
Rub carrots preferably on a coarse grater, cut onions into thin half rings, mix these ingredients. In a separate bowl, mix the salt with sugar (1: 1) and pepper, add a little lemon juice. Sprinkle the carrots with the mixture and let it marinate for about 30-60 minutes. At this time, chop the cabbage thinly, sprinkle with lemon juice and remember it with your hands. Grind parsley leaves, combine with cabbage. Add salad with pickled carrots (along with juice) and season with salt, oil.
Recipe 4: Chicken and Carrot Salad
This recipe is worthy of a festive table and needs a beautiful decoration in the form of carrots on a large flat and oval plate. As the "tail" we will use dill or parsley.
Ingredients:
- 300 gr. carrots
- 300 gr. potato
- 300 gr. mushrooms
- 200 gr. boiled chicken fillet
- eggs 2 pcs.
- 100-150 gr. onions
- salt
- vegetable oil
- dill greens
Cooking method:
1. Boil carrots and potatoes, cool and peel. Chop the onions and mushrooms into thin slices. Heat the oil, on which we will fry the onion with mushrooms until tender.
2. Grate boiled potatoes and carrots (each vegetable separately), and cut the chicken fillet into slices. Boil eggs and grate on a fine grater.
3. Lay the salad in layers on an oval flat plate: 1 layer - potatoes in the form of carrots, 2 layer - evenly spread the onion, overcooked with mushrooms, 3 layer - sliced chicken, 4 layer - crushed eggs, 5 final layer - carrots.
Grease each layer with mayonnaise, except the last. Using a knife, make grooves on the surface of the salad (do not forget to lay the "tail" of the greens), and then briefly put it in the refrigerator. Delicious, beautiful and festive dish is ready!
Carrot Salad - Useful Tips
- Carrots are cooked long enough, which leads to the destruction of bioactive substances and, as a result, the loss of a rich orange color. To minimize this loss and maintain color, add a pinch of baking soda during boiling in boiling water;
- Cooked carrots can not be stored in water, as it will become watery, tasteless, and will immediately fall apart when cleaned;
- It is advisable to store this vegetable in a dark and cool place. In the rays of sunlight, carrots will quickly become loose and lose valuable carotene.
So, we have listed some useful tips regarding carrots. Finally, I want to say that this valuable vegetable in combination with garlic or onions perfectly fights painful microflora, cleanses the blood and improves immunity. Therefore, include carrots in your compulsory diet, and our simple recipes will help you diversify it! Enjoy your meal!
