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 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.
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 🙂 Usually my wife (who doesn’t cook) does a read-through to catch stuff like this, and the more egregious grammar problems
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 like.
@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