This is a classic little salad, one of the basics you’ll often find served at falafel stands and lunchtime restaurants. It’s a pleasant, simple creation with a sharp, fiery tang from lemon juice and raw garlic, along with a slight bitterness from the lemon peels.
You can make it by grating up some whole carrots, or, say, using the carrot cores left over from my stuffed carrot recipe. As a bonus, if you happen to use brightly colored carrots, then you’ll get a salad with a riot of color, which I guarantee you’ll never see at your neighborhood falafel shop.
These colored carrots can be purchased at the various farmer’s markets as well as at a few shops in Jaffa (and sometimes Ramle).
My version uses so-called Chinese lemons — those miniature fruits also known as limequats — which have particularly thin skins that lack the bitterness of their pithier, full-sized cousins.
For about two cups’ worth:
- 2 cups finely chopped carrot
- 1 garlic clove, crushed
- 2 mini lemons (“Chinese lemons” in Hebrew, also known as limequats in English), finely chopped, seeds removed (alternately: 1 tablespoon lemon juice plus 2 tablespoons lemon pulp and zest)
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- 1/4 cup parsley, chopped
Prep time: 5 minutes.
Mix together all the ingredients. Let sit for about 15 minutes so the flavors can blend.
Regarding the lemon: Chinese lemons are sweet enough that you can use them whole, but larger, traditional lemons have a bitter pith. After squeezing them for juice, you’ll want to remove some of the zesty yellow outside with a vegetable peeler (it’s OK if you get some of the white pith) and chop up that along with the pulpy inside to get the 2 tablespoons called for in the recipe.
