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This crunchy grated carrot salad is the perfect snack or side dish to use up any extra carrots or boost the amount of fiber you eat in a day. The carrots and healthy fats give you a nice afternoon burst of energy. The lemon and orange also brighten it up because we could all use a little extra sunshine in our lives.
The beta carotene found in carrots makes them orange and is great for eye health. They are naturally sweet yet low in natural sugar. The nutrients in carrots may help protect the body from several kinds of cancer.
Carrot Salad Tips
I created this salad for my 21-Day Cleanse as a nourishing snack recipe. It’s not really main event material yet it works perfectly as a snack.
- If you decide to buy whole carrots, you can grate them yourself. This adds more carrot flavor to the dish (store-bought shredded carrots save time, but you’ll lose out on some of the flavor).
- Up the protein in this salad by adding chickpeas or extra sunflower seeds.
- Toast the sunflower seeds for a richer flavor
- Top with fresh fruit if you want more of a classic French carrot salad.
QUick Tip
Make multiple servings of this Carrot Salad and store in small snack-size containers to grab and go all week when you’re feeling hungry in between meals.
More Healthy 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:
Don’t forget to rate + review this recipe once you’ve made it. I can’t wait to read how yours turned out!
Crunchy Carrot Salad
Ingredients
- 2 cup shredded carrots
- ¼ cup cilantro stems removed and chopped
- ¼ cup raw sunflower seeds
- dash black pepper, ground
- dash sea salt, unrefined
Dressing
- 2 tbsp orange juiced
- 2 tbsp lemon juiced
- 2 tbsp extra-virgin 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 use whole carrots and grate them for stronger flavor.
- 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 Plant-Based Cleanse, I used rainbow carrots because they’re fun!
Nutrition
Did you make this recipe?
Leave a review for a chance to win signed copies of my cookbooks!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 few days and have as a quick snack.
Using store-bought shredded carrots makes this super quick and easy. I added fresh diced pineapple for some sweetness, which made all the difference for me. The crunch is satisfying!
Pineapple is a great addition to this one, Jennifer! Yum!
I LOVE LOVE this salad. I juice carrots all the time and now this will be another way to consume carrots. Instead of drinking them I can now eat them as a side salad with my carrot juice, lol! So tasty!
So happy you loved it, Kyla!! Carrot can be a nice sweet treat, in many forms.
The carrot salad I added some mixed greens. I felt like it was missing something.
I hope you liked the way it turned out for you, Phyllis.
I liked the nuttiness that the sunflower seeds added. Overall good salad!
Sunflower seeds are one of my absolute favorite things to add to a salad. Delish! Thanks for trying the recipe, Diana.
Nice and easy salad. Always looking for new ways to use carrots.
Carrots are such an easy and healthy addition to dishes. Thanks for trying the salad, Arlene.
This salad surprised me in how good it was. It looks a little boring and uninspired, but that’s far from the truth. So yummy and definitely crunchy!
Some recipes are surprising, when you get that right mix of flavors. Thanks for commenting!!
Hello healthy feeling for spring! I am usually lazy with my sunflower seeds. Yes toast them like you said it makes a world of difference and I am ok with bitter cilantro. I love the stuff. Stem and all lol This is the best so far!!
Yay. Great to hear you like it the best. It’s one of our favorites too.
This is good, crunchy and fresh. Decent for a change. Probably more of a side. Might make again.
Although this salad is more of a side dish, I had it as a lunch salad. Shredded the carrots in the food processor, grabbed some parsley garden and added some raw sunflower seeds. The citrus dressing had just the right zing to add flavor and smelled delightful! Juiced half an orange and half a lemon. Boom it was done! I wasn’t sure if it would be enough for a meal, however I felt full after so there you go.
Good for what it was but not really my thing. Worth trying!
I love the simplicity of this salad. I didn’t use orange juice – didn’t feel like blending the oranges. The lemon was a refreshing touch. Typically I just cut carrots and celery to bring as snacks when on the go. This was a nice light snack at home and fancier than just pieces of carrot. I skipped salt and pepper. The little crunch from the seeds helped bring this all together. 🙂
I don’t care for the deli carrot/raisin salads, but I love the dressing in this one! I toasted the sunflower seeds as suggested, and it gives more body to the dish. Delicious!
Crunchy carrot salad was surprisingly good. Crunchy and tangy
Another wonderful salad…great to have a salad without mayo!!! This one will be on repeat for sure
It was good, but not outstanding. I used fresh grated rainbow carrots and halved the recipe to make one serving.
Would never have thought of eating as a snack – was intrigued! Quite refreshing and I’ll make again 😉
I have always loved carrot salad with lemon juice dressing. The addition of cilantro and sunflower seeds makes the salad even better. The only reason I did not give this a 5-star rating is because the recipe has you add the salt and pepper after assembling the salad. I did this and found that the salt & pepper were not evenly distributed even though I tossed the salad thoroughly. I would suggest that the salt & pepper be added to the dressing which I will do the next time I make this salad.
I loved that it was super easy, and super quick to put together. It was a bit citrus forward for our preference but that would be easy to adjust.
Another easy to make salad which is what I need right now! Easy! I like how this salad gives me another way to eat carrots. I definitely see this as a side dish or a snack. It could accompany another fruit salad or pasta salad.