Carrot Salad with Honey and Dill

Natala kept begging for the recipe, and since I was happy to share it with her, I figured others might be interested as well.  This is a super-easy, spring dish - great for brunch or with dinner.

Carrots with honey and dill
Dave Sanford, May 2009


Place a large stock pot over high heat, season with honey or sugar and kosher salt and bring to a boil.

While water is heating up, prepare your carrots and an ice bath.

Carrots:  peel and cut into desired shape, making sure that pieces are all roughly the same size.

Ice bath:  Fill a large metal bowl with ice water, leaving room for the water to rise when you add the cooked carrots.

Once the water has come up to a boil,* add the carrots.  Cooking time will vary based on the size of your carrot pieces, but for sections that are roughly 1-2inches long by 1/2 inch thick, approximately 3 minutes or should be about right.  Test a carrot - when they are tender with a little "toothiness," remove with a slotted spoon or tongs immediately to the ice bath, being reasonably careful to drain the hot water back into the stockpot so that you don't unneccesarily increase the temperature of the ice bath.  The ice bath immediately stops the cooking, and this whole process is known as "blanching and shocking."


*A full boil is not really necessary, just need to dissolve the sugars and salt, and of course the hotter the water, the faster the cooking time for the carrots.


Once the carrots have chilled in the ice water, drain and tossing with dressing (recipe follows) or reserve in the refrigerator.

Dressing for carrots:

Add ~ 1/4 honey to a medium mixing bowl, and squeeze 1 juicy lemon over the top.  Add roughly a teaspoon of kosher salt and whisk to dissolve the honey.  Incorporate by whisking about a tablespoonful, maybe more, of good olive oil.  Finally, mix in a good 2 tablespoons of chopped fresh dill.  I suppose you could substitute dried dill too, but why?  All of these components are to taste, so feel free to adjust in the dressing itself;  you can also adjust later before serving.  Pour the dressing over the carrots and toss gently to combine, then refrigerate.  Before serving, taste for seasoning and adjust with honey, lemon juice, salt, olive oil, or dill as necessary. 

"Tarator" - variably a Turkish/Albanian cold soup that includes walnuts (amongst other delicious ingredients) or a walnut-based sauce.  The sauce used here is "inspired" by tarator.

Preheat your oven to 375°
Arrange shelled walnuts (pieces are fine since they will be processed later) in a single layer on an ungreassed baking sheet and toast in the oven for about 10 minutes, tossing once after the first 5 minutes.  Cooking times vary, you're going for light golden brown, and don't forget that there will be some carry-over cooking after you remove from the oven.

Once toasted, let the walnuts cool on the baking sheet just for a minute so they are easier to handle.  In the meantime, using the side of a knife, smash a clove of garlic and add to your cuisinart with 1 TBS kosher salt.  Add walnuts (1.5 cups or so) and start pulsing.  Moisten with juice from half a lemon and continue pulsing until a rough paste is achieved, being sure to scrape down the sides as you go.  Now add 1 TBS or so of chopped fresh dill (flat leaf parsely for a different take, or even cilantro), fresh cracked black pepper, and now whir in the processor ("on," not "pulse").  Drizzle in olive oil or walnut oil little by little until desired consistency is reached.  Taste and adjust seasoning with kosher salt, or lemon juice, whirring again to mix.

To Serve:

Taste your carrots and adjust the dressing as you like.  Smear some of the tarator on the bottom of your serving dish.  Pile the dressed carrots on top, and optionally finish with a drizzle of good olive oil.  Serve additional tarator on the side if desired.