Libyan Steamed Carrot Salad (Salatet Sfinari bil Kamoun)
This is an easy and quick(ish) salad that works great as a side dish for your favorite Libyan meal and stuff like kabobs. It’s basically just softened carrots with a few herbs, and a chili pepper to give it a kick. And it can be made ahead of time, yet not so intrusive to interfere with whatever else you’re making.
Serves 4-6 people, but can easily be expanded for a party.
Cooking time: 30 minutes + resting in the fridge
Shopping List:
- 2-3 carrots, depending on size
- 1/2 bunch cilantro
- 1/2 bunch flat parsley
- 1-2 tbsp Garlic
- Chili pepper (to heat preference)
(I usually use an anaheim or pasilla) - Lemon
- 1 tsp Cumin
- Olive oil
Begin by washing the carrots, and slicing them into 1/8″ thick (or less) rounds. When the carrots get over around 1/2″ thick, halve them long ways and continue slicing the halves. Then start steaming them ~ you can use one of those collapsible flower thingies (which we do) ~ just make sure you cover it with a pot lid so they steam better. Check on them and stir regularly, and when they’re soft remove from heat and set aside to cool.
Meanwhile, mince up around 1/2 a bunch of both flat parsley and cilantro. Separately mince up the chile as well as several cloves of garlic.
Squeeze the juice of half a lemon over the carrots, and add in the cumin, garlic, and chili. Now comes the tricky part: stir in the cilantro and parsley until there’s “enough”. How much depends on how many carrots, but the total amount is for around 3 regular-sized carrots. It should look a lot like the photo above.
Add a few tablespoons of olive oil, stir in, and let sit in the fridge for an hour or so. Top off with a splash more olive oil right before serving.
@olav @tofugolem [1. I assume the cumin is added at the same time as the garlic?2. By “chili pepper,” do you mean fresh? Crushed red pepper? Red pepper powder?]—Yeah, as in the cumin at the same time. Good catch, thanks 🙂 Chili pepper, definitely fresh or the texture gets all weird. Kat has a sensitive palate so I’ll grab like a pasilla or anaheim and maybe use half of it, but go with as much heat as you likeAnd sorry, there's something off between my website and posting to Mastodon
1. I assume the cumin is added at the same time as the garlic?
2. By “chili pepper,” do you mean fresh? Crushed red pepper? Red pepper powder?
@olav a quick salad I found for lunch the other day. On a side note, this was automagically posted from #WordPress using the "ActivityPub" plugin. It's a relatively painless way to #federate your blog, and allows your followers to subscribe to your posts there, including notifications if they prefer.