Healthy Thai Carrot Salad Recipe

You guys probably already know how big we are, as a family, on salads, especially healthy ones that are simple yet filled with flavour. Today, I present to you one more such salad – a Healthy Thai Carrot Salad Recipe.

Like most Thai dishes, this one too is a beautiful medley of flavours. Every single ingredient that goes into it lends a pronounced flavour and texture to the salad, making it sweet and salty and spicy and sour all at once. This is a vegetarian version of the typical Thai Carrot Salad Recipe, sans the fish sauce or oyster sauce, vegan and gluten-free as well. This is an absolutely zero-oil salad! I have also tried to make it as healthy as possible, using wholesome ingredients and a healthy sweetener. It is super easy to make as well! You know those days when you are dying to eat something lovely, but know you just cannot do unhealthy? This is definitely the kind of salad you should try out on such days! It makes for a wonderfully refreshing mid-morning or evening snack, or a lovely accompaniment to lunch or dinner.

I have used ‘Delhi carrots’ in this Healthy Thai Carrot Salad Recipe, those long, fat carrots that are a brilliant red when grated. I absolutely adore these carrots! They are winter delicacies, abundantly available in the cold months, supremely sweet when in season. For this reason, these carrots lend themselves beautifully to Gajar Ka Halwa, that all-time favourite dessert of Indians. Gajar Ka Halwa is all I ever thought of when I saw these red carrots – as opposed to the orange-coloured, smaller Ooty carrots. Recently, though, I picked up what are probably the last of the Delhi carrots for this year, and decided to go ahead and use them in something very different – this bursting-with-flavour Thai Carrot Salad!

Let us know check out the Healthy Thai Carrot Salad Recipe, shall we?

Ingredients (serves 2-3):

1. 2 large Delhi carrots
2. 1/4 cup groundnuts
3. Salt to taste
4. A 1-inch piece of ginger
5. 2 green chillies
6. 1 tablespoon jaggery powder or to taste
7. Juice of 1/2 lemon or to taste
8. 1 tablespoon finely chopped fresh coriander

Method:

1. Dry roast the peanuts on medium flame till they get crisp. Take care not to burn them. Switch off gas and allow the roasted groundnuts to cool down fully.

2. Peel the carrots and julienne them. Place the carrot juliennes in a large mixing bowl.

3. Peel the ginger and chop it very finely. Add to the mixing bowl.

4. Chop the green chillies very finely. Add to the mixing bowl.

5. Add salt to taste, jaggery powder and finely chopped fresh coriander to the mixing bowl.

6. When the roasted peanuts have completely cooled down, pulse in a mixer to coarsely crush them. Add the crushed peanuts to the mixing bowl.

7. Add lemon juice to taste to the mixing bowl.

8. Mix all the ingredients in the mixing bowl well. Serve the Thai Carrot Salad immediately.

Notes:

1. I have used Delhi carrots here, but you can use any other variety you prefer. Since the Delhi carrots are quite sweet, the need for sweetener in the salad is reduced quite a bit.
2. You can also grate the carrots if you don’t want to julienne them.
3. Honey or maple syrup can be used in place of the jaggery powder. You could also use refined sugar instead, which isn’t a very healthy substitute.
4. You may use more or less peanuts, depending upon personal taste preferences. The above quantity is just perfect for us.
5. Make sure you grind the peanuts coarsely and not make a fine powder. Just pulse once in the mixer for a second – that is enough.
6. Make sure you chop the ginger and green chillies really, really fine.
7. Do not let the Thai Carrot Salad sit around for too long after making it. Serve it immediately after making, otherwise it will start leaving water and losing flavour.

Did you like the recipe? Do tell me, in your comments!

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This recipe is for the Foodie Monday Blog Hop, a Facebook group that I am part of. Every Monday, a bunch of us food bloggers get together and cook for a pre-determined theme. The theme this week is #GajarKaJalwa, wherein we dish up various recipes using carrots, in honour of the upcoming International Carrot Day on April 4. Poonam, the very talented author of the food blog Annapurna, was the one who suggested this beautiful theme.

Check out the carrot recipes that the other participants have come up with!

1. Gajar ka khatta mitha achar by Swaty

2. Gluten free cornmeal carrot cake by Sujata

3. Carrot oatmeal pancake by Poonam

4. Healthy Thai carrot salad by Priya

5. Carrot oatmeal cookies by Mayuri

6. Carrot Vada by Preethi

7. Indian spice roasted carrot hummus by Kalyani

8. Oven roasted carrot by Archana

9. Carrot mini crescent rolls by Sasmita

10. Instapot carrot halwa

I’m also sharing this recipe with Fiesta Friday #269. The co-hosts this week are Mollie @ Frugal Hausfrau and Ai @ Ai Made It For You.