The salad recipe I'm sharing today is small but mighty. It's not loaded with leafy greens. In fact, it's quite a simple salad. My crunchy grated carrot salad is the perfect snack or side dish.
I created this salad for my Autumn Cleanse as a snack recipe since the healthy fats give you an afternoon refresh. The lemon and orange also brighten it up because we could all use a little extra sunshine in our lives.
Simple Carrot Salad Tips
The hardest part of this recipe is deciding whether to peel the carrots or grate them thinly. You do you!
I turn to this salad for an afternoon pick-me-up instead of veggies and dip because, well, it's healthier. But the dressing does elevate this dish to more than just peeled carrots and some greens.
Extra Topping Options
Feel free to up the protein in this salad with chickpeas or black beans. Use toasted sunflower seeds for a different flavor and feel free to add in some spices of your choice. The classic French carrot salad also includes fruit, so add that as a topping.
Carrot Nutrition
Everyone knows that carrots are healthy. The beta carotene that makes them orange is great for eye health. They are naturally sweet yet low in natural sugar. The nutrients in carrots have been shown to protect the body from several kinds of cancer.
Carrot Salad FAQs
Carrots contain beta carotene, fiber, potassium and antioxidants. Talk about nutrient-loaded!
The carrot salad you knew as a child is probably a French Carrot salad. It often includes fruit and is used as a side dish. Feel free to add fresh apples or raisins to my version!
While this salad is at its best eaten right away, you can refrigerate it for a day or two without the dressing on it.
More Carrot Recipes
If you love this grated carrot salad, use the rest of the bag in your fridge or pull some more from the garden to use in these recipes:
- Honey Turmeric Smoothie
- Potato Curry
- Vegetable Noodle Soup
- Carrot Top Smoothie
- Thai Coconut Soup
- Vegetarian Noodle Salad
- Creamy Tomato Soup
- Thai Lettuce Wraps
- Strawberry Carrot Smoothie
- Savory Zoodles in a Jar
Crunchy Carrot Salad
Rate this Recipe Print RecipeIngredients
- 2 carrots (peeled into strips)
- ¼ cup cilantro (chopped)
- ¼ cup sunflower seeds
- dash ground black pepper
- dash sea salt
Dressing
- 2 tablespoon orange (juiced)
- 2 tablespoon lemon (juiced)
- 2 tablespoon olive oil
Instructions
- Whisk together orange juice, lemon juice and olive oil. Set aside.
- Combine carrot strips, cilantro and sunflower seeds on a plate.
- Drizzle dressing over salad. Season with salt and pepper to taste.
Notes
- You can grate the carrots for this salad instead of peeling them into strips.
- Swap out the sunflower seeds with hemp hearts (still nut-free) or sliced almonds.
- Does cilantro taste like soap to you? If so, use parsley instead.
- Feel free to use the carrots of your choice. When I created this salad for my Autumn Cleanse, I used rainbow carrots because they're fun!
Regina
Loving this crunch of the carrots and the sunflower seeds. Very good dressing too.
Mandie
Loved it. I thought because of the flavors, esp the cilantro, that it would be a perfect side for our taco night...and it was! Both hubby and I give it five stars.
Regina
This is tonight's and it's so simple and such few ingredients, I made it a side salad with a baked skinless chicken thigh. It's good though and I love the simple dressing.
Lynn
I loved this simple carrot salad; cool, crunchy and sweet! I grated the carrots and added hemp seeds.
Justina
Very yummy. Will be making again.
Heather Ford
Another very good salad. I really loved having the cilantro and sunflower seeds in here an the dressing brought it all together.
Tina S
I was surprised at how much I enjoyed this salad! Of course you'd have to be a person that loves cilantro. I feel that really makes it special. The citrus dressing really made it bright-tasting!
Karyn
Tasty. I think I would like pepitas better than sunflower seeds.
Dukh Niwaran
This is my new least favorite--just sort of blah to us and hard for my husband to eat.
Annette
Delicious, super delicious-excellent side.
Shana
I love love love this! So easy to make and delicious!
Carol
The most unique salad yet I'd have to say ~ very unusual flavor pairings! Probably not my favorite but glad I attempted this.
Rosanna
I've been eating almost all of the salads as a meal. This one is definitely just a side and not a full meal. I like the crunch of the carrots and am really liking the dressings in this challenge. Flavors all go well together.
Kathleen
Yum! All favorite flavors of mine. Love the crunch of the sunflower seeds.
Mickey Cunningham
This salad was crunchy as the title states. Not my favorite of the salad challenge but not bad either. Liked the dressing. Just felt it need more substance. I also used some parsley to make up for not having enough cilantro.
Sylvie
I was pleasantly surprised with the flavors in this carrot salad. Thought it would be plain but I enjoyed it very much.
Rosie Sanchez
Never thought the combo of cilantro and carrots would taste so good.
Patti
not bad I added some mustard to dressing
Kimber
Quick and easy. An otherwise bland salad was transformed with this dressing. I made exactly as the recipe calls, but would like to experiment by adding different toppings next time. Was a bit cold and rainy here, so I made this to go with a vegetable barley soup.
Simple Green Smoothies
Pairing this salad with soup is a perfect idea!
Lynn Komorny
good and crunchy! family loved it. the dressing has a tang . dry toast the sunflower seeds if raw and want more flavor.
Jennifer Leinhos
Great salad. Nice flavors. Simple to make. I used it as a side dish to vegan Broccoli soup, from the 10 day soup challenge.
Simple Green Smoothies
Way to totally RAWK it!
Jean
This was okay but not my favorite. I used hemp seeds and added left over quinoa. Next time I will add some roasted chickpeas and that may make all the difference.
Lynn
Pretty good salad. Much easier to make than the pasta salad. I think I would like it even more with raisins as someone else did.
Renee Lembcke
Loved it! Simple and delicious
Meagan
A delicious little salad. However I feel like it should only be a side or served as a topping to something else -Tacos maybe. Or just roast the carrots and add everything after. Still I very much enjoyed drinking the dressing in the bottom of my bowl. Yum!
Simple Green Smoothies
Yum, tacos! Gotta love drinking the dressing from the bottom of the bowl!
CATHERINE READ
I liked the citrus flavor the dressing added. This would be a good side dish salad. For one of my servings I added raisins, cause I love raisins and carrots. This was especially nice because I used my own grown carrots.
Sara Hester
Tried this recipe on the 10 day salad challenge. I am not a big fan of raw carrots but this was pretty good. I used a vegetable peeler to peel straps of carrot which was a lot of work. Grating them probably would have been easier and faster.
Patty
The salad was very simple with delicious flavors. However, I feel like I was missing something.
Dani
My boyfriend definitely didn't enjoy this salad as much as the rest.
HK
I always love eating variations of carrot salad. I got into it after a friend suggest I try it last year. I love peeling the carrots and eating them as salad. The suggestion to try hemp seeds was a cool new idea!
Nidia Gago
I love the blend of cilantro and carrot
Esther
Tasty! Very easy and quick.
Sandy W
Salad Challenge: Day 8. Simple, clean flavours and very tasty.
Supreet Jaiswal
Couldnt have the salad as a whole meal because I didnt think it would fill me up so I added spinach, sugar snap peas, cucumbers, olives and it was a good hearty meal after a workout. Feeling full but light at the same time! Dressing wasnt as good but So i changed it to the pasta salad dressing and it was bomb!
Simple Green Smoothies
Wow, way to make it your own. Great ideas on adding in more veggies and dressing you already made!
Becky A.
Not my favorite.
Wendy Pegues
I Loved The Bright Beautiful Color. I Like Carrots Whole, Sliced, Shredded And Diced 🙂 The Orange And Lemon Dressing Was Simple Yet Delicious. I Topped My Salad With Thinly Sliced Almonds And Raisins. I Will Make This Salad Again.
Cristina
I didn’t like this one, the cilantro tasted odd in the dressing and the raw carrot tasted odd
Jennifer Alexander
Not crazy about this one. I served this as a side dish alongside Trader Joe's Thai Sweet Chili Veggie Burgers. I love that it's colorful and easy to make, but my family was not impressed.
Tammy Uyeda
So fresh and crunchy indeed! The simplicity of this salad allowed the bright fresh flavours to shine. A quick and easy side salad for any day of the week!
Teresa Hurley
Salad was good and orange in dressing nice. We thought was missing something and added strawberries about 1/2 way thru. Good not in top 3 but good
Kari Thom
Crunchy Carrot Salad was so simple and delicious! Perfect side for everything! The dressing was bright and flavorful.
Stefanie
I like that this salad was super simple to make and had a great crunchy texture. It is a little bland on flavor, so I added some extra veggies and spices to give it more flavor.
Dawn
This salad was called simple with 3 ingredients, but it is definitely missing something. Swapped parsley for cilantro. The dressing was light and zippy.
Lynne L
i enjoyed this. its a good substitution for cole slaw
J.R. Pollnow
Enjoyed how simple this was and overall refreshing. We shared this with a friend who enjoyed it as well.
Allison Schalck
I love carrots but this isn’t a dish I would make again. The dressing was just too acidic for my liking.
Amanda
Unfortunately was not a fan of this one. Don’t like cilantro so it was really just carrots and sunflower seeds. The dressing was good and refreshing. Think this would be better as a “coleslaw” type dish or added to a sandwich or something.
Liz
Substituted butternut squash instead of using carrots due to allergy. Very simple salad to make and dressing is good. Just didn't seem to have the appeal as yesterday's salad with so much variety in it.
Simple Green Smoothies
Adding it to a sandwich or wrap even is a great idea!
Barbara
This salad was just ok. Hubby didn’t care for it at all. Said too many carrots. Just ok for me.
Lisa Van Diest
Another great salad! The orange lemon dressing mixed with cilantro is wonderful! This would be great to serve for Easter any spring time potluck!
Simple Green Smoothies
Easter would be a perfect time to serve this for a potluck!
Jeanette Weir
This one wasn’t my favorite. I grated the carrots but I think the cilantro was too much for me. If I make this again I’d probably try the parsley switch or even just lessen the cilantro added in.
Debi Watanabe
Ok. This salad surprised me. Simple and short list of ingredients. I thought this salad would be plain and just a side dish. It turned out really delicious!
Patricia Brooks
I really liked this one. Even though it was simple it was so full of flavor. The combination of sweet orange and sour lemon was so good together; and I especially am a fan of cilantro. I used roasted pumpkin seeds cause I didn’t have any sunflower seeds.
Sally Blair
Sally Blair March 28, 2022 at 10:03 pm. I’m reposting this review because my email was entered incorrectly.
5 stars My hubby and I both enjoyed the crunchy carrot salad with the lemon orange dressing. It was refreshing and a taste treat not quite like any salad I had eaten before. The sunflower seeds gave it some extra bite which we also both enjoyed. We agreed it was a side salad, not a full dinner but would definitely try it again.
Martha Silbaugh
The Crunchy Carrot Salad is not my favorite but colorful and good as a topping to a green saladI think. As suggested fruit would be good like pineapple chunks added to it.
Jennifer Magsig
A nice alternative to traditional slaw recipes. I used cashews instead of sunflower seeds, because that sounded best to me of what I had on hand. I doubt I will make it very often, but I really liked it!
Sally Blair
My hubby and I both enjoyed the crunchy carrot salad with the lemon orange dressing. It was refreshing and a taste treat not quite like any salad I had eaten before. The sunflower seeds gave it some extra bite which we also both enjoyed. We agreed it was a side salad, not a full dinner but would definitely try it again.
Judy
Easy, simple but oh so tasty!
Shari Heal
Simple (once I switched from peeling to grating!) and tasty. Probably doesn't need quite as much dressing.
Rose
Simple and delicious. We enjoyed it!
Maggie Golding
Simple, Light and refreshing. Toasted sunflower seeds kept it interesting. I used parsley as cilantro tastes tinny to me.