Recipe: Carrots A-Go-Go

We had a bounty of carrots this fall – all types – and had been talking with friends about finding an easy recipe that used up a lot of carrots. My friend said she had made this Sunburst Carrot Salad recipe from 101 Cookbooks so I gave it a try on Halloween.  It was good, and used a lot of carrots.

Sunburst Carrot Salad

Ingredients:

• 2 bunches carrots, preferably spring carrots
• extra virgin olive oil
• fine grain sea salt
• 1 green chile (serrano), deveined and minced
• 1 lemon, zest and juice
• 1 cup cilantro, chopped
• 1 cup green pumpkin seeds (pepitas), toasted

Start by washing the carrots. Use a vegetable peeler to shave each carrot into wide ribbons. (NOTE: This is harder than it sounds.  You may waste some carrots, but they make for good snacks while you’re making the rest of the recipe.  Also, we had a faulty peeler that I bought out of desperation at the grocery store.  Now we have 2 fancy peelers and one faulty one.)  If your carrots have beat up, dirty skins, peel them first before making ribbons.

Heat a big splash of olive oil in a skillet over medium-high heat. Add a big pinch of salt and stir in the carrot ribbons. Saute for just 20 seconds or so – barely long enough to take the raw edge and a bit of crunch off the carrots. Quickly stir in the chiles and lemon zest. Remove from heat and stir in the cilantro, about one tablespoon of lemon juice, and then most of the pepitas. Taste. Add more salt and/or lemon juice if needed. Garnish with remaining pepitas.

Serves 4 to 6.