my super delicious Moroccan carrot salad
I love all kinds of vegetables (most in fact apart from celeriac,broccoli and peppers) and I admired the way vegetable and salad dishes were prepared in Morocco –colourful,immersed in aromatic spices and drowned in beautiful olive or argan oil it made it an utmost pleasure to get your five a day and more.
So ever since I came back from my holiday in Morocco in October,I have been trying to find and recreate a recipe for the delicious carrot salad I came to enjoy there. The below recipe is a fusion from several recipes I found online and it tastes (and looks!) almost like the one I had and fell in love with at our Riad Dar Ayniwen in Marrakesh.
Moroccan Carrot Salad in Marrakesh
The good thing about this recipe also that it is excellent for the day where you didn’t have time to go shopping –apart from the carrots you can basically vary all the ingredients. Depending on availability (in my fridge) I made it once with fresh coriander,once with mint and once with parsley –all of it was delicious!
Moroccan Carrot Salad
Amount: for 3-4 as a side dish (or for one hungry vegetarian)
Cooking time: 30 min
Ingredients:
- 500 g carrots
- 2 cloves of garlic
- some fresh coriander/mint or parsley
- 1 teaspoon sugar
- 1/4 teaspoon cinammon
- 1/2 teaspoon cumin
- 1/2 teaspoon ground paprika
- cayenne pepper
- 3 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
- 1 tablespoon orange juice
- 2-3 tablespoons olive oil or argon oil
1. Peel and slice the carrots into 0.5 cm slices. Peel garlic.
2. Simmer carrots together with the garlic and one tablespoon of sugar until tender but still crunchy. (Garlic can also be grated and added straight to the marinade,but I prefer the more subtle taste that you get when just boiling it with the carrots).
3. In the meantime prepare the marinade by mixing the oil,lemon juice,orange juice,cumin,paprika powder,cinnamon,salt,pepper and cayenne pepper (the last according to how spicy you like it).
4. Drain carrots and mix while still hot with the marinade and leave to cool. Add fresh herbs just before serving.
The argan oil I bought in Essaouira
This carrot salad is particularly good if you use Argan Oil,an oil autochthon to Western parts of Morocco in the region around Essaouira. This nutty and aromatic oil is made of the fruits of the argan tree which is protected by UNESCO. In olden times (I hope!) the indigenous Berbers harvested their argan nuts in an unusual way:their goats would climb the argan trees and gorge on the fruits. Then they would follow the call of nature and the poor poor Berber in charge of this particularly unpleasant task would subsequently pick the argan fruit pits out of the goats’excrements,which were then ground to make the oil.
This is not a lie,there are REALLY goats on these trees!
On the road to Essaouira there are goats in trees. Who would have thought?
Apart from being very tasty,argan oil is also supposed to be healthy with a very high content of Vitamin E and Omega 3. It has also been picked up by the cosmetic industry for its anti-aging properties and in addition appears to be beneficial for inflammatory diseases such as psoriasis,eczema or rheumatic arthritis. I can however only confirm here on this blog that the oil tastes lovely,as I could not find any evidence base in the form of peer-reviewed studies for its supposed anti-inflammatory or cosmetic potential.
Interestingly,most of Morocco’s argan oil is produced by women and sold through women’s cooperative which gives Moroccan women in rural and underdeveloped areas a source of income.
Do try it if you have a chance!
I’d never seen Argan oil before but found a small bottle of it for surprisingly cheap at a gourmet shop here. I understand there are two different varieties,one’s the kind you eat and the other’s the kind you put in your hair,right? I’m sure it wouldn’t hurt to put Argan oil in your hair though…
That photo is absolutely amazing!
@hungryandfrozen –I have the hair variant too,I’m not sure it’s much different from putting olive oil in you hair actually…Looking forward to read what you are making with the argan oil
Great post!
Thank you very much for this. I never heard of the goat thing before (and I would perhaps rather have kept it that way lol). Adding some note to you,Argan is considered the “gold”of all oil due to its price tag. I had it with assorted root vegetables at Arpege,and your recipe brings back a very good memory of it. I’m recreating that dish with your twists this Xmas.
Happy Christmas
xxx
@skinny bib –merry Christmas to you too lovely! Argan oil is indeed very expensive,even if you buy it in morocco. Clearly not for every day but great for occasion,must work lovely with root veg,mmmmhhhh