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 21-Day Cleanse as a nourishing snack recipe. The fresh 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.
This bright salad is not really main event material yet it works perfectly as a side dish or snack. It’ll definitely add vibrancy to your tablescape.
Table of Contents
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 Recipes that use Carrots
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 carrots peeled into strips
- ¼ cup cilantro chopped
- ¼ cup sunflower seeds
- dash ground black pepper
- dash sea salt
Dressing
- 2 tbsp orange juiced
- 2 tbsp lemon juiced
- 2 tbsp 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!
Delicious, super delicious-excellent side.
I love love love this! So easy to make and delicious!
The most unique salad yet I’d have to say ~ very unusual flavor pairings! Probably not my favorite but glad I attempted this.
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.
Yum! All favorite flavors of mine. Love the crunch of the sunflower seeds.
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.
I was pleasantly surprised with the flavors in this carrot salad. Thought it would be plain but I enjoyed it very much.
Never thought the combo of cilantro and carrots would taste so good.
not bad I added some mustard to dressing
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.
Pairing this salad with soup is a perfect idea!
good and crunchy! family loved it. the dressing has a tang . dry toast the sunflower seeds if raw and want more flavor.
Great salad. Nice flavors. Simple to make. I used it as a side dish to vegan Broccoli soup, from the 10 day soup challenge.
Way to totally RAWK it!
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.
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.
Loved it! Simple and delicious