Recipe for an easy, ready-in-less-than-15 minutes, Shredded Carrot, Coconut and Cucumber Salad. A healthy way to eat your vegetables, the recipe is also vegan and gluten-free.
If you are a South Indian reading this post, you may shake your head saying, “this is just the boring old salad we make at home!”
Trust me, I’d think the same thing before this shredded carrot salad became a lunch-time regular in my home. With a perfect balance of flavours and a good smack of tempering that my great grandmother (bless her soul) would approve, this salad has all the potential to be the star of your dining table.
There’s more that makes this salad so good! With the world going ga-ga over the health benefits of coconut (and rightfully so), you don’t have to feel guilty about that generous handful of coconut here. It adds a delicate sweetness to the salad. Feel free to add as many green chillies as your palate can tolerate. It complements the sweetness of the carrot, cucumber and coconut in the salad perfectly, and then the squeeze of lemon to round it all off.
Few other things you can add to this Shredded Carrot Salad:
- Some soaked and drained split yellow moong dal
- Cooked red rice or brown rice (to make it a hearty lunch by itself)
- Finely chopped bell pepper
- Sprouted green mung or bean sprouts for a lovely crunch
- Coarsely grated green mango
- Add 2 cups of yogurt to this recipe to make a colourful carrot raita
The idea is to add one of the above, and not all of the above, because you want to turn into into an utter mishmash of everything in your refrigerator.
If you have a spiralizer, you can spiralize the carrot and cucumber for this salad for added visual appeal and slightly different texture.
Shredded Carrot Salad with Coconut
Ingredients
- 4 carrots medium
- 1 cucumber large
- 1/2 cup coconut grated
- 1 lemon
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1/2 tsp black pepper coarsely ground
tempering
- 2 tsps vegetable oil
- 1/2 tsp mustard seeds
- 1/4 tsp cumin seeds
- 1 - 2 green chillies , finely chopped
- 1 sprig curry leaves
- 1 pinch asafoetida (optional)
Instructions
- Peel and coarsely grate the carrots.
- Scrub the cucumber and cut into small pieces.
- In a bowl, mix together the grated carrot, chopped cucumber and grated coconut.
- Squeeze the juice of one lemon, add salt and pepper and stir well to combine.
- In a small tadka ladle or a pan, heat the oil. Add all the tempering ingredients. Once the mustard seeds splutter, transfer the tadka (tempering) over the salad and stir to combine.
- Serve immediately or cover with cling wrap and refrigerate until ready to serve.
Leave Your Comments