Moroccan Carrot Salad With Dates and Yogurt (Vegan-Friendly)

Name: Moroccan Carrot Salad With Dates and Yogurt (Vegan-Friendly)
Prep time: 15 min
Total time: 15 min
Yield: 4-6 serving(s)
Ingredients: 6 -8 carrots, grated (I used standard orange, indigo and yellow carrots); 1/4 cup sliced almonds, toasted (walnuts, pistachios, pine nuts, hazelnuts are good substitutes); 3 large dates, chopped small (I used a combo of medjool and deglet noor dates); lettuce leaf; 1 lemon, juice and zest of; 1 -2 tablespoon honey (Local honey is best! I had to warm the honey a little to make it easier to whisk.); 2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil; 1 -2 teaspoon orange flower water, to taste; 1 teaspoon ras el hanout spice mix; 1/4 cup greek style plain yogurt; 3 -4 tablespoons of fresh mint, minced (save a few leaves for garnish)

Submitted by COOKGIRl

"I'm not sure if this recipe is more inspired by Moroccan cuisine or close to a traditional recipe...it doesn't matter to me. From a local CSA flyer but the original recipe source is unknown. You can easily make this recipe vegan by omitting the plain yogurt and substituting another sweetener for the honey. A link to ras el hanout recipes on this site: http://www.food.com/recipe-finder/condiments-etc/ras-el-hanout. I use this one: Recipe #205185."

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photo by COOKGIRl

Ready In:: 15mins
Ingredients:: 11
Serves:: 4-6

ingredients

6 -8 carrots, grated (I used standard orange, indigo and yellow carrots)
¹⁄₄ cup sliced almonds, toasted (walnuts, pistachios, pine nuts, hazelnuts are good substitutes)
3 large dates, chopped small (I used a combo of medjool and deglet noor dates)
lettuce leaf
Dressing
1 lemon, juice and zest of
1 -2 tablespoon honey (Local honey is best! I had to warm the honey a little to make it easier to whisk.)
2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
1 -2 teaspoon orange flower water, to taste
1 teaspoon ras el hanout spice mix
¹⁄₄ cup greek style plain yogurt
3 -4 tablespoons of fresh mint, minced (save a few leaves for garnish)

directions

Grate the carrots and place them in a bowl. Stir in most of the almonds (save a few for garnish) and the dates.
Whisk together the dressing. Taste and correct seasonings, add more lemon juice or yogurt if necessary. Pour the dressing over the carrot mixture; stir.
Serve immediately or cover and chill.
Garnish with a few sliced almonds and fresh mint leaves before serving.
If desired, the carrot salad can be served over a bed of lettuce. I served it over butter lettuce.

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Reviews

This was an interesting side dish - I wanted to try out my new food processor so the carrots ended up getting minced a little too much, but it had a lovely flavor. For ZWT9

Random Rachel
This was really great! I loved the ras el hanout blended with the yogurt and orange blossom water (which I had never tried before), plus the other flavors in the yogurt dressing. I used a combination of pistashios, almonds and pinenuts along with the dates. Yummy and complex-tasting salad! Made for the Soup-A-Stars during ZWT9

LifeIsGood
I've made this to take for lunch today. Used small young carrots that I got from the Hutterites who come to town once a week. They are so sweet and fresh!. Anyway, I'll mix the dressing in just before eating the salad but I did make a small taste sample and, oh my!, this is yummy. I do love carrot salads but the Ras el Hanout really does add something special. Thanks for sharing CG :D

Annacia
Yummy!! I used regular carrots from the grocery store (better than some but I admit not tasty ones raw), blanched almond slices I toasted in a dry pan, drier Iranian dates, I didn't serve it over any lettuce, used less lemon zest (by mistake), local honey with bee pollen in it, recipe#262189, only garnished with fresh mint and it went well but I'm a bit hesitant with mint sometimes that is why I didn't put any directly into the salad and I would do it the same way again. Plus I used the rest of the ingredients. Made for Veggie Swap #49 ~ August ~

UmmBinat