Almond & Carrot Ribbon Salad

Almond & Carrot Ribbon Salad – How to Love Cooking

Almond & Carrot Ribbon Salad

Allow me to introduce the newest and most delicious simple salad to ever grace my blog, Almond and Carrot Ribbon Salad.

It is currently on repeat for any meals where it is acceptable to eat a bowl full of carrot ribbons.

More and more, I’m finding that we humans enjoy transforming our veggies into various pasta-like shapes and textures. (Zoodles, anyone?) I totally get this, especially when it comes to carrots. I don’t know about you, but I kinda feel like a horse when I eat raw carrots in stick form. They’re hard to chew, and the flavor gets old after about three bites. Am I right??

Overall, vegetables of any kind can be hard to work into your diet regularly. This is especially true if you don’t like vegetables and/or don’t enjoy cooking, since we tend to favor eating cooked veggies.

BUT, what if I showed you a way that you could enjoy an entire bowl of raw carrots, like I did immediately after I took these photos.

Would you believe that it was possible?

For me, all it took was transforming the carrots into thin, fettuccini-like ribbons, tossing them in a simple, but flavorful vinaigrette and sprinkling them with a healthy handful of crunchy toasted almonds.

Almond & Carrot Ribbon Salad

And no, you don’t need a fancy-shmancy spiralizer either. I used my handy-dandy vegetable peeler!

Simply give six large carrots a rinse, and peel away that first layer around the outside.

Then, grab a bowl, and peel strips of carrot straight into the bowl, rotating the carrot as you go. Take your time, and be careful. You don’t want to accidentally nick your hand. The carrot will become thin, and you may not be able to peel the the entire thing. Feel free to save those last bits for a snack or chop them up to use in another dish.

Once all the carrots are peeled as far as you can peel, add the four-ingredient vinaigrette, your chopped roasted or toasted almonds, parsley, and toss.

You can eat it straight away or save it in the fridge for later and allow the flavors to develop.

Like I mentioned in my post for Parmesan Baked Kale, sometimes all it takes is a new cooking method, or in this case, preparation method to help me fall in love with an ingredient I’m somewhat reluctant to eat. Also, can we talk about how relaxing it is to peel vegetables? No? Just me?

This would make a fantastic side dish for Easter, Passover, anyone who is dairy and/or gluten free, and carrot lovers everywhere.

Get your beta-carotene on, and give this yummy salad a try! 🙂

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Almond & Carrot Ribbon Salad

Transform your carrots into delightful carrot ribbons, toss with a flavorful vinaigrette, and sprinkle with crunchy almonds for this out-of-this-world simple salad.

Course Salad, Side, Side Dish, Snack

Cuisine American

Prep Time 20 minutes

Total Time 20 minutes

Author Cathy

Ingredients

• 6 Carrots (Large)
• 1/2 C. Chopped Almonds (Toasted)
• 1 tsp. Dried Parsley (Feel free to use fresh chopped parsley if you have it.)

For the Dressing

• 1 TBS Extra Virgin Olive Oil
• 4 TBS Fresh Lemon Juice
• 1/2 tsp. Honey
• 1/2 tsp. Brown or Dijon Mustard
• 1/4 tsp. Salt
• 1/8 tsp. Ground Black Pepper

Instructions

1.     Rinse and peel the outside of the carrots. 

   2) Into a mixing bowl, peel all around the carrots with your veggie peeler, making long pasta-like ribbons as far as you can go. (Be sure to take your time as you don't want to nick your hand!) 

   3) Add the ingredients for the dressing into a small bowl and whisk or mix with a fork until well combined.

   4) Pour the dressing over the carrot ribbons, sprinkle most of the toasted almonds*** (saving some to garnish on the plate), and add the dried parsley.

   5) Give a quick toss together and serve or store in the fridge to eat later. 

   ***If you buy roasted almonds, you can just chop them up and toss them right into the salad. If your almonds are raw, just chop them up, and toast them in a small pan on the stove over medium-low heat for a few minutes until they get a little crunchy. (I mistakenly toasted my already roasted almonds, not realizing it wasn't necessary.) Caution! The almonds can go from toasted to burnt very quickly! Be sure to keep an eye on them, and stir them in the pan every so often. They will become nice and fragrant when they are ready.***