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A simple salad that even the tahini-ambivalent will love.
By
Daniel Gritzer
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Daniel Gritzer
Editorial Director
Daniel joined the Serious Eats culinary team in 2014 and writes recipes, equipment reviews, articles on cooking techniques. Prior to that he was a food editor at Food & Wine magazine, and the staff writer for Time Out New York's restaurant and bars section.
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Updated April 08, 2024
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Why It Works
- Tahini is used sparingly to complement, not overwhelm the salad.
- Young, small carrots can be left whole or simply cut in half before lightly cooking.
In the world of recipe writing, it's generally not a good idea to introduce a dish by saying it stars an ingredient you don't particularly like. But that's what I'm going to do, and the ingredient for me is tahini. I don't hate it exactly, I just tend not to be too fond of it most of the time. And yet I'm also a believer that everything has its place and, when approached with skill and care, can win even the greatest skeptic over.
Related to this is my "try it at least five, preferably 10, and possibly endless times" rule, which states that you have to force yourself to eat a food you dislike no fewer than five times, and—if you can stomach it—as many times as it takes until you find something to like about it. I've learned to love a lot of things this way...except for licorice.
In the case of tahini, my biggest issue is that its flavor often overpowers whatever it's served with. I have nothing against a roasted sesame flavor in and of itself (in fact, I love it), but I do have something against carpet-bombing my food with it. The key then, at least for me, is to be sparing. Tahini's flavor is strong and will carry through, even in relatively small amounts.
That's what I did with this simple carrot side dish, created as part of a challenge to make simple, seasonal recipes that use no more than four main ingredients (excluding pantry staples such as salt and olive oil).
I start with beautiful carrots from the farmers market. It's easy to look past the carrots when the market stands are full of tomatoes, berries, and corn, but carrots are fresh from the fields now too and deserve a place at the summertime table. For this dish, I used young ones that I split in half or cooked whole (when they were small enough), but you can make it with carrots of any size—just cut them into spears about 1/2 inch thick before cooking.
I blanch them in salted water until tender-crisp, just to take the raw edge off but not soften them completely. As soon as they're done, I shock them in ice water to stop the cooking. Then I whip up a simple vinaigrette using olive oil, lemon juice and zest, minced cilantro, grated ginger, and, yes, just a couple teaspoons of tahini. Toss the carrots in it and you're all set.
It's a minimal amount of tahini, but you absolutely taste it—and it tastes great. Even I think so, and that's saying a lot.
:max_bytes(150000):strip_icc()/__opt__aboutcom__coeus__resources__content_migration__serious_eats__seriouseats.com__images__2015__07__20150701-carrot-salad-vicky-wasik-1-00ab7d8e11cb4fdaba3c07dfaa84d8f7.jpg "Chilled Carrots With Tahini-Ginger Dressing Recipe (3)")
August 2015
Recipe Details
Chilled Carrots With Tahini-Ginger Dressing Recipe
Cook15 mins
Active15 mins
Total15 mins
Serves2to 4 servings
Ingredients
1 pound carrots, trimmed, scrubbed, and sliced lengthwise into 1/2-inch-thick spears (see notes)
2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
1 tablespoon fresh juice from 1 lemon plus finely grated zest of 1/2 lemon
1 teaspoon grated peeledfresh ginger
2 teaspoons minced cilantro leaves and tender stems
2 teaspoons tahini
Kosher salt
Directions
Bring a pot of salted water to a boil and fill a large bowl with ice water. Add carrots and cook until tender-crisp, about 3 minutes. Immediately transfer to ice water bath to chill.
In a medium bowl, whisk together olive oil, lemon juice and zest, ginger, cilantro, and tahini. Season with salt.
Drain carrots, add to bowl with dressing and toss to coat. Serve.
Notes
Small, slender young carrots are particularly beautiful in this dish and can be cooked whole, but any size carrot will work as long as you cut it into spears of about 1/2-inch in diameter before cooking. If you use young carrots with very thin skins, scrubbing them is enough; if they're larger and older, you can peel the skins before cooking.
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| Nutrition Facts (per serving) | |
|---|---|
| 116 | Calories |
| 8g | Fat |
| 10g | Carbs |
| 1g | Protein |
Show Full Nutrition Label
×
| Nutrition Facts | |
|---|---|
| Servings: 2to 4 | |
| Amount per serving | |
| Calories | 116 |
| % Daily Value* | |
| Total Fat 8g | 11% |
| Saturated Fat 1g | 6% |
| Cholesterol 0mg | 0% |
| Sodium 224mg | 10% |
| Total Carbohydrate 10g | 4% |
| Dietary Fiber 4g | 13% |
| Total Sugars 4g | |
| Protein 1g | |
| Vitamin C 6mg | 29% |
| Calcium 38mg | 3% |
| Iron 1mg | 3% |
| Potassium 290mg | 6% |
| *The % Daily Value (DV) tells you how much a nutrient in a food serving contributes to a daily diet. 2,000 calories a day is used for general nutrition advice. | |
(Nutrition information is calculated using an ingredient database and should be considered an estimate.)
