A colorful carrot salad! I didn't expect to be making this as I'm not a huge fan of carrot salad. But that's due to what I've known of carrot salad. You know, the one prepared with raisins, and it's too sweet, often seen in prepared food sections or at a cookout. I always pass on that. But I happened upon these colorful carrots at the market a few days ago

and put some trust into a La Tartine Gourmande recipe and it was worth it. The recipe is super simple, French Carrot Salad with Fresh Herbs, so simple in fact I thought it might not taste like much at all, but surprise surprise, this is a wonderful tasty and light carrot salad. The only sweetness is from the carrots and balances nice with fresh herbs and lemon and garlic in the vinaigrette.

I tried to use our new nifty mandolin to julienne the carrots, but the strands were just too thick on the smallest setting, and it was hard to pass through the carrots (I'm reading about other people having trouble with the blades as well, I'll let you know how it goes in future posts, surely it can slice and julienne something!) and definitely forget this thing at least for carrots and potatoes, I'm not quite sure yet what it's exactly capable of. I've found the only good grating I can get is with a hand grater for consistency. It always feels like a lot of work but then I'm happy with the end result. Do any of you know of a good grating technique that doesn't require so much elbow grease? I've used our kitchen-aid with the grater adapter, I'll get some nice shreds but then there are huge chunks mixed in and all different shapes. Just doesn't seem to work the way I want it to. I wish our paper shredder could handle food, because that thing works like a charm!

Photo note: I had pretty low light conditions for the shoot, I added some additional light with this very inexpensive light, it's designed to go on the camera, but I can prop it up or clamp it just about anywhere, it's ok for close work, when it's about 10"-12" away from your subject matter, further than that doesn't seem to give sufficient light, but works in a pinch if you don't have the space to set up light boxes.

Below is the recipe, and if you're not a fan of carrot salad you might be after this one! Bon Appetiti!

Carrot Salad with Fresh Herbs
(adapted from La Tartine Gourmande)

4 large carrots
1 tablespoon chopped flat-leaf parsley
2 tablespoons chopped chives
Vinaigrette:
1/4 cup fresh lemon juice
1 garlic clove, minced
6 tablespoons olive oil
Salt + pepper

Peel the carrots and shred with a grater (see comments above about shredding). Transfer shredded carrots to bowl.

In a small bowl whisk the garlic and lemon juice, slowly whisk in the olive oil to emulsify (I used an immersion blender rather than whisking and it works really well!). Toss the vinaigrette with the carrots. Cover and refrigerate. When ready to serve add the fresh herbs and mix well.