Car­rot And Cal­en­du­la Salad

Grat­ed car­rot sal­ad is a sta­ple in clas­sic French cui­sine. Fresh car­rots are grat­ed, sea­soned and dressed sim­ply with olive oil, lemon and pars­ley. The dish is as ridicu­lous­ly sim­ple as it is refresh­ing, and gives you a great base for oth­er fla­vors and add-ins.

My first time pulling out petals of a cal­en­du­la flower took me back to the mem­o­ry of grat­ing car­rots — their dis­tinct smell and pig­ment that stained my hands for days. The inspi­ra­tion for this dish came to me in our Chef’s Gar­den, smelling those cal­en­du­la flow­ers in the mid­day sun. That slight warmth perked up the flower’s aro­mas and drew in bit­ter cit­rus and tar­ragon fla­vors from the rest of the gar­den from the air, onto my hands.

That dis­cov­ery led to the fol­low­ing sal­ad, which will come togeth­er rather quickly!

RECIPE FOR THE HOME COOK AS FOLLOWS

½ lb carrots

4 cal­en­du­la flow­ers, petals gen­tly pulled out and reserved

2 sprigs of tarragon

1 – 2 tbsp nin­er estate olive oil

½ lemon for juice

salt + black pepper

First, grate your car­rots. If you’re using a box grater, be sure to use long strokes across the grater to get lengthy shreds. A man­do­line, spi­ral­iz­er or food proces­sor will also work. Strip your tar­ragon leaves from the sprigs and rough­ly chop them. Com­bine car­rots, cal­en­du­la petals and tar­ragon and toss light­ly with salt and pep­per. Then, driz­zle in oil and toss again (this will coat/​protect the del­i­cates a lit­tle longer). Squeeze in some fresh lemon juice and toss. Taste and adjust the sea­son­ings as needed.

A NOTE FROM THE CHEF

This is a great last-minute sal­ad — eat­en fresh and cold it has a bright, pleas­ing aro­ma. I’ve includ­ed a few week­ly meal sug­ges­tions below but the range is vast and you can adapt it to what­ev­er you have on hand (I’ve even found it as a healthy foil for corn chips…)

WEEK­DAY MEAL IDEAS

Serve on Avo­ca­do Toast

Top with poached eggs

Top with roast­ed fish or chicken