South Indian Carrot Salad

South Indian Carrot Salad is both sweet, spicy and a little earthy! It starts with fresh new season carrots and is typically served as a side dish as part of a main meal along with other vegetable dishes.. It’s refreshing from the crisp and juicy carrots, with just a hint of sweetness from the raisins, a kick from green chilies, creamy from the grated coconut and a bold tempering to bring it all together. This authentic South Indian Carrot Salad recipe is one that you are going to love!

So what is South Indian carrot salad? It’s a simple side dish or salad made with minimal ingredients that provide an explosion of flavors in your mouth. Most South Indian dishes have tempering of big bold flavors with mustard seeds, asafetida, cumin seeds, grated coconut, curry leaves, chillies playing a major role in most dishes. The recipes tend to be simple and the tempering brings the dishes alive by injecting the big flavor. Using this tempering one can create lot of simple vegetable salads; raw, lightly cooked vegetables, yogurt based dishes such as raita and the list goes on.

Ingredient Highlights

• Carrot: Fresh spring carrots are the best for this recipe. Choose any color you find and like or a mix of colors. Simply use a vegetable peeler to peel and shred or buy a bag of pre grated or matchstick carrots.
• Raisins: adds a delicious burst of sweetness and a bite in every spoon.
• Green chilies: Add a hint of much needed heat to this salad. If you don’t have green chili on hand, you can also use red pepper flakes instead. If you prefer a mild salad omit the green chillies.
• Grated Coconut : Freshly grated coconut adds a little softness and creamy texture to this salad. Grated fresh(not dried) coconut can be found in most Indian grocery stores and surprisingly taste and feel exactly like freshly grated coconut. Simply take when you need, defrost and use in your recipe.
• Curry Leaves: fresh or dried if you don’t have fresh is an essential ingredient for this recipe to get that authentic herbal earthy taste, but I also realize it’s not available everywhere. In that case chopped cilantro will stand in just fine.
• Tempering: a tempering of curry leaves, mustard seeds, asafetida, cumin seeds will bring out all the flavor and round up the flavors. Final tempering is the cornerstone of South Indian cuisine.
• Lime Juice: Adds a tart taste to the dressing. It works perfectly with the sweet, salty, and spicy elements in the dish.