An Easy and Delicious Moroccan Carrot Salad

Anyone else in need of a post-Pesach reset this week? I love cooking (and eating!) for Passover, but it’s always heavy on the eggs, dairy, sugar—oh yeah, and matzah. By the end of the holiday, I’m ready for a change. I’m also ready to stop spending quite so much time in the kitchen, much as I enjoy the elaborate sweets and eggy casseroles that are my Passover favorites. Hence this Moroccan carrot salad.

With that in mind, I’m officially declaring this detox week on Poppy and Prune. Now, I’m not suggesting you give up solid food in favor of some vile lemon-cayenne concoction—far from it. What I am suggesting is taking a break from the refined carbs and sugar and focusing on whole foods.

This tangy, spicy (or not, depending on your preferences) Moroccan carrot salad, slightly adapted from Gil Marks’s Olive Trees and Honey, fits that bill perfectly, and it also happens to be quite easy to prepare (especially if you shred the carrots in a food processor rather than hand-grating). It may not be the most exciting recipe in the book—that honor probably goes to my beloved almodrote—but it is probably my most frequently prepared.

It’s a perfect salad for Shabbat lunch, since it’s pareve, served cold or at room temperature, and requires advanced prep and a lengthy stint in the fridge before serving.

According to Gil Marks, carrot salads, especially raw ones like this, are relatively new dishes. Though carrots have long been a common sight in Jewish cooking from Eastern Europe to the Middle East to North Africa, it was only in the twentieth century that raw carrots shifted from being seen as a garnish to a viable ingredient on which to base a dish.

Northwestern Africa was always at the vanguard of carrot cuisine, pioneering first cooked salads featuring the root and, eventually, raw ones too. They were traditionally served as an accompaniment to couscous or part of an assortment of salads. Carrot salads (as well as carrots in other forms) often feature at Rosh Hashanah meals as a symbol of a sweet and fruitful year to come.

Moroccan carrot salad arrived in Israel in the 1940s, where it quickly became ubiquitous—and for good reason. The flavor of the characteristic charmoula (a Moroccan marinade of oil, lemon juice, garlic, cumin, and salt) is so bright and vibrant, the perfect antidote to all that heavy Pesach food!

Moroccan Carrot Salad (Shlata Chizo)

1 pound carrots, coarsely grated (about 4 cups)

¼ cup extra-virgin olive oil or vegetable oil

Juice of 1 fresh lemon

¼ cup chopped fresh cilantro, optional

1 teaspoon ground cumin

1 teaspoon sweet paprika

½ teaspoon turmeric

½ teaspoon salt

½ teaspoon harissa, 1 tablespoon minced green chilies, or ¼ teaspoon cayenne, optional

In large bowl, mix all the ingredients. Cover and let marinate, refrigerated, for at least 2 hours and up to 2 days. Serve chilled or at room temperature.

Sources: Encyclopedia of Jewish Food (Gil Marks, 2010); Olive Trees and Honey: A Treasury of Vegetarian Recipes from Jewish Communities around the World (Gil Marks, 2004)

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