Carrot Salad with Mango and Cumin

Carrot Salad with Mango and Cumin

Blue Heron Kitchen

Locally grown carrots are available at the farmer’s market. Buy them.  Buy small ones and don’t bother peeling them; just wash them.  They taste like carrots.  

Several zestless lemons have been waiting for me in my fridge. 

When life gives me lemons, I bake Buttery Lemony Möhn Kichel (the next fabulous cookie in my hopeful debut cookbook, "365 Ways to Bake Möhn Kichel"), or I make this great salad, which uses 1/3 cup of freshly squeezed lemon juice. 

Be patriotic and buy organic lemons. 

And, on Independence Day Eve, consider this: 

Let’s become independently healthy .. not just in our diets, but politically too. 

This gorgeous, fat-free salad is loaded with vitamin A for America!

Ingredients:

4 cups of grated carrots

¼ cup currants

1 small or ½ large mango, diced

1/3 c. freshly squeezed lemon juice, strained

½ tsp. toasted ground cumin (see directions below for toasting and grinding)

1 Tbsp. Agave syrup (you may use Lyle’s Golden syrup or a mild honey)

¼ c. chopped fresh herbs, one or mixed, your choice:

                                                  parsley, pineapple sage, cilantro, dill

Kosher salt and freshly ground pepper to taste

Procedure:

To make toasted cumin: in a small cast iron skillet, heat whole cumin seeds, being careful not to scorch them, until toasted and aromatic.  Cool slightly and grind in a spice grinder (I have a coffee grinder that I use solely for spice grinding.) Store in a glass jar. You will be astonished at the difference between your ground cumin and ordinary ground cumin you buy commercially. 

Grate carrots into a medium sized bowl.

Add currants, and mango and toss.

In a small bowl, whisk the lemon juice, toasted ground cumin and Agave syrup and pour over carrot mixture.  Toss.

Add chopped herbs and salt and pepper to taste.

Refrigerate for several hours or overnight before serving.

Serves 4-8 (In my house, 2)