Carrot Salad - General Cooking Principles
We, modern housewives, are so accustomed to the root crop called carrots, that we take it for granted. Carrots and any dish will decorate, and bring new flavors to it, and give them the aroma, and, of course, saturate the body with vitamins, microelements and carotene. After all, it was not for nothing that in ancient Rome they called her the orange queen of vegetables and were praised as divine grace.
What just do not cook this wonderful vegetable? This is an indispensable attribute of almost any first course. In addition, adding carrots to a salad is a very competent and productive move, not only in terms of taste, but also in terms of usefulness. Imagine the benefits it will bring in combination with other vegetables, light meat or fruit! Speaking of combinations: culinary specialists refer carrots to universal foods, so it fits perfectly into the framework of almost any salad, but it acquires great taste with cucumbers, green peas, radishes, cabbage, onions, garlic, seafood, as well as meat and fruits such as apples and oranges.
Carrots - low-calorie vegetable, which contains about 30 kcal per 100 grams. product, therefore, based on it developed a lot of diets for losing weight, but in order for its carotene and vitamins to be better absorbed, carrot salads need to be filled with vegetable oil, sour cream, mayonnaise or any other fatty sauce.
Carrot Salad - Food Preparation
So, in order to make our salad as healthy and tasty as possible, let's look at some points that should be taken into account when choosing carrots. Determine the degree of usefulness of the product is easy. First, look at the color, the brighter the carrot, the richer it is with carotene; therefore, such a vegetable will be more useful. The second point to which attention should be directed: carrots should not be soft, because such consistency indicates improper storage. Thirdly, it is believed that, ideally, carrots should have a mass of from 130 to 180 grams. It is in this weight range that it is most useful and fortified. Depending on the recipe of the dish, carrots are pre-boiled, fried, pickled or used raw. In any case, first, it is thoroughly washed with a brush from deep contamination or it is peeled off the upper skin (the longer the vegetable is “free”, the coarser its skin becomes). Boil carrots for salads entirely and, as a rule, with a peel, which subsequently leaves quite well from the pulp. Carrots certainly taste good, but few of us agree to gnaw a raw vegetable every day, so let me suggest some recipes for carrot salads that can brighten and diversify your diet. Cook and eat on health!
Carrot Salad - Best Recipes
Recipe 1: Korean Carrot Salad
Korean carrot salad deserves all praise. It is very light, tasty and, like plasticine, opens up wide opportunities for imagination and experimentation with ingredients. We present to your attention a simple, fast, original, but at the same time not requiring much financial expenditure recipe for carrot salad with mushrooms, sweet peppers and crab meat.
Ingredients:
- Korean carrot 200 gr.
- champignons (or white) 150 gr.
- sweet pepper 3 pieces
- crab meat (sticks) 200 gr.
- salt
- greenery
- vegetable oil
Cooking Method:
With peppers, remove the stem, clear the box of seeds, cut into rings or thin plastics. Wash the mushrooms and boil in salted water, then cut into plates. Crab meat (chopsticks) cut into strips. Put all the ingredients in the salad bowl, including Korean carrots, and mix thoroughly, filling the salad with finely chopped greens, if necessary, with salt, vegetable (preferably olive) oil.
Put lettuce briefly in the fridge so that the Korean carrot will give its flavor to the dish to the maximum and soak other ingredients in it.
Recipe 2: Sweet Fresh Carrot Salad
Carrots, raisins, apples combined with sour cream and honey sauce. This salad can be safely attributed to the dessert dish. Fast, tasty and very vitamin! A bold combination will ensure the strength of your cardiovascular system, due to the content of vitamins and potassium necessary for the heart muscle. Ingredients:
- carrots 3 medium pieces (about 500 gr.)
- apple 2 pieces
- one cup of raisins
- a teaspoon of honey
- sour cream 50-70 gr.
Cooking Method:
In warm water, soak the raisins until complete swelling (30 minutes). Grate the carrots on a fine grater, drain the excess liquid, leaving a little to dilute the honey. Cut apples into small cubes or straws. Mix all of the above ingredients. Mix honey with a spoon of carrot juice, which is then mixed with sour cream. Season the salad with the resulting sweet sauce. If desired, add pounded walnuts to taste.
Recipe 3: Cabbage and carrot salad
Perhaps the most affordable salad of all existing. You can cook it in the traditional way: wash shredded cabbage, add carrots and fill with vegetable oil and vinegar. What if the carrots are pre-marinated? Surely it will taste better. Let's try.
Ingredients:
- white cabbage 1 forks
- one big carrot
- 1 onion
- salt
- a little sugar
- ground pepper (black)
- parsley
- juice of one lemon (half for carrots, half for cabbage)
- sunflower oil
Cooking Method:
Scratch carrots preferably on a coarse grater, onion cut into thin half rings, mix these ingredients. In a separate bowl, mix the salt with the sugar (1: 1) and pepper, add a little lemon juice. Sprinkle with carrot mixture and leave to marinate for about 30-60 minutes. At this time, thinly chop the cabbage, sprinkle with lemon juice and remember it with your hands. Chop the parsley leaves, combine with the cabbage. Complete the salad with pickled carrots (along with the juice) and season with salt, oil.
Recipe 4: Salad with Chicken and Carrots
This recipe is worthy of a festive table and needs a beautiful design in the form of carrots on a large flat and oval plate. Dill or parsley will be used as a “tail”.
Ingredients:
- 300 gr. carrots
- 300 gr. potato
- 300 gr. mushroom
- 200 gr. boiled chicken fillet
- Chicken eggs 2 pcs.
- 100-150 gr. onion bulb
- salt
- vegetable oil
- green dill Cooking Method:
1. Boil carrots and potatoes, cool and peel. Chop onions and mushrooms in thin plates. Heat oil, on which we will fry onions with mushrooms until tender.
2. Grate boiled potatoes and carrots (each vegetable separately), and cut the chicken fillet into slices. Eggs also boil and rub on a fine grater.
3. Put the salad layers in an oval flat plate: 1 layer - potatoes in the form of carrots, 2 layers - evenly spread onions, overcooked with mushrooms, 3 layer - chicken slices, 4 layer - crumbled eggs, 5 final layer - carrots.
Grease each layer with mayonnaise, except the last. Using a knife, make grooves on the surface of the salad (do not forget to lay the “tail” of greens), then briefly put it in the refrigerator. Tasty, beautiful and festive dish is ready!
Carrot Salad - Tips and Tricks
- Carrots are boiled for a long time, which leads to the destruction of bioactive substances and, as a consequence, the loss of a rich orange color. To minimize this loss and preserve color, add a pinch of baking soda during boiling;
- Cooked carrots can not be stored in water, because it will become watery, tasteless, and will immediately fall apart during cleaning;
- It is advisable to store this vegetable in a dark and cool place. In the rays of sunlight, carrot quickly flakes and loses valuable carotene.
So, we have listed some useful tips on carrots. Finally, I would like to say that this valuable vegetable combined with garlic or onions perfectly fights against the painful microflora, cleanses the blood and boosts immunity. Therefore, include carrots in your mandatory diet, and our simple recipes will help you diversify it! Enjoy your meal!
